Ghost Brigades
by The Silent Scream
Summary: An attack during the granting of the doctorates not only throws the Scoobie Gang into the midst of yet another battle for life and death, but leads to revelations for Willow and Pat none of them ever would have expected. Willow/OC est. relationship, rating for violence and cursing.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Here we go with the next instalment of this little series :) I hope you'll enjoy what I came up with this time ;)

Disclaimer: None of this is mine. Just borrowing it for a tiny bit :)

* * *

Ghost Brigades

"God, I feel stupid", Pat grumbled out, tugging at the collar of the button-up shirt for the hundredth time; behind her, Willow shook her head with a smile, then moved over to her, taking a moment to eat the eye candy, presented in form of her lover in rather formal wear, a well-tailored black suit and the for once white shirt, making her look quite stunning in the witch's eyes.

"No, you look amazing", she voiced those thoughts out loud, smiling as she embraced her partner and the hug was immediately returned, "and hey, at least you don't have to wear that gown and hat, like me."

"That's something", Pat smirked, bending down for a quick kiss before she checked herself over in the mirror yet again, holding back another sigh – she knew that Willow was fond of seeing her in such formal clothing, and the occasion pretty much called for it, but still she felt far from comfortable.

"See it this way", the redhead added, moving one hand to caress the taller woman's long hair, "I really… enjoy seeing you in this, and after the whole ceremony and stuff, I'll enjoy it even more to get you out of it."

"How could I say no to that", the demon smirked, finally stopping her tugging and pulling at the collar, figuring it wouldn't get any looser, "and of course I know you enjoy seeing me in this kind of clothing. Which is pretty much the only reason why I put up with it. And of course I wouldn't want to look like a slob at your ceremony…"

"It still feels strange", Willow admitted, now moving out of the embrace and turning to look into the mirror, checking herself over again once more as well; in contrast to her partner's rather masculine clothing, she had put on one of her finer dresses, made of dark green fabric which brought out her eyes and hair, said hair having been curled slightly so it wouldn't just hang flatly down her back, the waves in it now matching those her partner had naturally in hers.

"After all these years", she went on, focusing on her partner again, "it'll be my last day at the university today… I'll never go back after today, except for maybe Scoobie duties."

"I imagine this must feel weird", Pat nodded her agreement, earning a slight smile from the redhead, "college used to be such a big part of your life, and now it's just kinda… over. But on the other hand, you'll get an awesome job, which hopefully will be just as interesting as university was."

"Hopefully, yes", Willow gave back with a smile, once more amazed at how the black haired woman was able to cheer her up with just a few well-chosen words; they took a few moments to just smile at each other, then the witch stood on the tips of her toes for yet another kiss, commenting how glad she was that she'd be wearing high heels as they finally left the bedroom and made their way to the small anteroom, almost ready to leave.

"For once, I won't be a full head smaller than you", she added as she put on the shoes with said heels, "and I won't look like a dwarf up on that stage if they really seat me between Chris and that other big guy from the team."

"The hat will make you look taller, as well", the demon pointed out, chuckling slightly at the annoyed look Willow gave her in response; then, they left the apartment together, the witch feeling oddly nervous as they walked to the elevator, even though technically, she already was finished and a doctor and the ceremony was more for show than anything substantial.

"So", Pat spoke up beside her, sensing her nervousness and eager to take her mind off of it, "who's coming? The whole gang?"

"Yes", Willow nodded, immediately seeing through the little attempt, but feeling too grateful for it to point it out, "Buffy, Dawn, Xander, Anya and Giles… Oh, and I emailed my parents about the event today, but I'm not sure if they'll actually make it."

"Huh", the demon let out in response to that, a careful non-committing noise; even though they had been together for years now, she never had met the redhead's parents, only knowing their first names from Willow telling her, and aware of the fact that, the only time her mother had taken an interest in her witchcraft, it had been while she'd been under demonic influence and the whole adventure nearly had ended with the redhead burned at the stake.

"I know what you're thinking", Willow told her as they entered the elevator together and she pushed the button for the ground floor, "this is an important day in my life, and they should be here."

"Not what I'm thinking", Pat denied at once, giving her yet another smile, a warm and loving one which sped up her heart rate, "actually, I was thinking about, even if they won't be there, your real family will be. Buffy, me, and the rest of them."

"Aw", the witch found herself unable to hold back a bit of cooing, "that was so sweet. And quite true."

Smiling as well, the taller woman nodded, then took the chance given for another brief kiss before the elevator doors opened; with an exaggerated bow, she then gestured at the apartment building's main door, making the witch giggle with her next words. "Your carriage awaits, my lady… I figured public transport wouldn't be fitting for the occasion, so I ordered a taxi."

"How thoughtful of you", Willow giggled, taking hold of the taller woman's arm when it was offered; to Pat's relief, the driver clearly had kept her instructions in mind, the taxi already waiting in front of the building as they stepped out of it, the woman driving it standing next to it and smiling at the couple as they were approaching.

"You called, I imagine", she stated, moving to the back door and opened it, "to the university?"

"Yes, thank you", the taller woman gave back, discreetly slipping her a twenty for the extra effort; she waited until Willow had gotten into the car, then climbed in herself, the driver doing the same moments later and stepping down on to the gas pedal, driving off to the university.

* * *

"Oooh", Dawn gushed the moment she spotted the demon, making her roll her good eye while next to the teenager, Buffy smirked, "our favourite demon in a suit. It must have been years since I saw this."

"And with any luck, after today, it will be years again until you'll see it once more", Pat dryly gave back, then briefly hugged the two in greeting, nodding when Buffy afterwards asked her if Willow already had gone inside.

"Putting on the wonderful robe, and hat", she added with a smirk, finding her cigarettes and lighting one of them up, "which annoy her almost as much as that suit annoys me."

"But at least we're out in the open today, so you can smoke", a familiar voice chimed in from behind, prompting them all to turn and look at a smiling Xander and equally happy looking Anya, both of them dressed up as well, "just imagine, hours of speeches and you with no access to cigarettes."

"The horror", Pat gave back dramatically, making the young man chuckle slightly; and half a minute later, Giles joined the small group, greeting them all with a cheerful tone in his voice and an equally cheerful smile on his face.

"I see we all made it", he then stated the obvious, glancing around, "such a wonderful occasion."

"And we all dressed appropriately", Anya found it necessary to point out, making him smile again while he nodded, then suggested that they should find seats now; since most of the seats in the first row were already taken and they wanted to sit together, they moved to the second row, occupying five of the seats there, the demon checking her watch after she had made herself as comfortable as it was possible on the rather cheap chair.

"How much longer?" Buffy wanted to know, shifting on the chair as well in an attempt to get comfortable without having her skirt ride up or something similarly embarrassing.

"Ten minutes, if they start on time", Pat let her know, figuring that she might as well use that time and lighting up another cigarette; next to her, Buffy shifted on the seat again, then glanced around, a low "Oh great" coming from her moments later, prompting the taller woman to give her a curious look.

"Willow's parents", the blonde explained, gesturing at a couple standing a few feet away, "I don't think they noticed us yet… I'm surprised they even made it here."

"Me, too", the demon mumbled, studying the two; it was obvious from which side of the family Willow had inherited her hair and eye colour, even though her mother's hair wasn't as vibrantly red as the witch's, the redhead's facial features closer to her father's than her mother's, even though Ira's weren't quite as kind and gentle as her partner's.

"They didn't even tell Willow they'll come", Pat added, forcing herself to look away from the two again so they wouldn't notice her staring, "she told me she let them know about it, but that she didn't know if they'd be here."

"Typical", Buffy mumbled, giving them a rather poisonous look, "they weren't even there at our high school graduation. And the only time her mother took an interest in her witchcraft, it ended with Willow and me nearly being burned at the stake."

"I know about that", the taller woman told her, finishing her smoke and pocketing the cigarette butt since she didn't want to end up scolded for littering, "Willow told me. Doesn't really make her mother very sympathetic to me."

"Understandable", Buffy agreed, then fell silent as the university's principal made his way on stage, prompting the few people who still were standing to find seats as fast as possible, Willow's parents among them; holding back the urge to glare at them, both the blonde and the demon focused on the elder man up on stage, who now smiled benevolently at the audience.

"I am glad to see so many here today", he then told them, "here to celebrate these young, brilliant minds as we bid them farewell and send them out into the world."

He paused and waited for polite applause, then spoke on, talking about education and how important it was, Pat only listening with half an ear, not all too interested in his speech; to her relief, it didn't take too long until he announced the newest generation of doctors to come from UC Sunnydale, gesturing with great flourish at the curtain which had kept them hidden from sight until now.

One by one, they moved on the stage, the demon finding herself unable to stop grinning as her partner appeared, their eyes briefly meeting, a happy smile on the redhead's face as well as she moved to her seat and sat down; just as she had feared, she had been put between Chris and another quite tall guy, thus looking rather small between them, despite the hat.

Again, the principal started talking, praising the minds of the people on stage and their achievements; and again, Pat wasn't really listening though, too busy with holding her lover's gaze and feeling proud of her achievement, well aware of the fact that the witch would be the only one up there who not only had acquired one PhD, but two.

Finally, he got done with his second speech, and started handing out the diplomas; since this was done alphabetically and with a brief mention of the subject the PhD had been acquired in, it took a bit until it finally was Willow's turn, the redhead positively glowing when finally, her name was read out.

"Willow Rosenberg", the principal did just that, even managing to pronounce her surname correctly, "PhD in Computer Science and PhD in Psychology. Congratulations."

"Thank you", the redhead gave back, feeling her cheeks heat up and realizing with slight dread that she was blushing; the principal smiled at her, in an attempt to calm her down, as he handed her the diplomas, making her smile back at him before she returned to her seat.

"I'm dating a doctor now", Pat whispered to Buffy, making the blonde giggle as she nodded; afterwards, there was a bit more talking, with a speech by one of the newly made doctors, then the official part of the celebration ended with the hat-toss, accompanied by the applause of the audience, the witch still glowing as she made her way from the stage and to her friends, not even having spotted her parents yet.

"Doctor Rosenberg", Buffy greeted her with a giggle, standing up to give her a hug, the rest of the group clustering around her; they all hugged her one by one, until she found herself in her partner's arms, the couple briefly smiling at each other before they exchanged a short, but tender kiss.

"You did it", she then told her, giving her another proud grin, "all the studying and listening to boring professors finally paid off."

"Indeed", Willow agreed with a giggle, about to pull her down for another kiss when a familiar voice called out her name, startling her enough to make her flinch, her surprise showing clearly on her face when she turned to look at the speaker.

"Mom", she then brought out, "and, and Dad! When did you get here? I didn't even know you'd come…"

"It was quite the short-notice decision", her mother told her, smiling at her, but not moving to hug her, as both Buffy and Pat noticed, "we were planning to email you and tell you about it, but you know how it is with airports and their wireless networks…"

"Uh-huh", the witch let out a vaguely agreeing noise, holding back a comment about how they just could have called; Sheila gave her another smile, then her father spoke up, making them both look at him, his wife nodding her agreement to his words.

"We were at your dorm room first", Ira let her know, with a slight frown, "but only found some girl there telling us you don't live there anymore."

"Well, I don't", Willow confirmed, holding back the urge to frown as well at the lack of attention her parents obviously had been paying to the content of her emails, "haven't for a couple of years now. I'm sure I've mentioned this before? I'm living with my girlfriend, Pat…"

"Nice to meet you", the demon chose this moment to chime in, taking a step forward; looking as if they only had noticed her now, first Sheila, then Ira shook her hand, the latter giving her a rather critical once-over while the redhead's mother politely cleared her throat.

"Our pleasure", she then said, "it's nice to finally meet you, Willow has mentioned you quite a few times in our correspondence. Now that you've said it, Willow, I do believe I remember something about the two of you moving in together…"

"I think I've mentioned it more than once", the redhead pointed out, unable to keep a bit of snark out of her voice, once more wondering if this was her girlfriend rubbing off on her; if her parents had noticed anything, they didn't let it show, Sheila merely smiling slightly again while Ira finally seemed to notice the rest of her friends.

"It's nice that you all made it here", he stated, glancing from one of them to the next, momentarily surprised about the hostility he could see on Buffy's face, "on such an important day for our Willow."

"We are so proud of you", her mother finally seemed to remember that it might be appropriate to tell her that; and even though it had come quite late and didn't really sound as if it was coming from her heart, Willow found herself smiling slightly, just opening her mouth to respond – when the gunshots and the screaming started, drowning out the shocked noises coming from her parents and her friends at those unexpected sounds.


	2. Chapter 2

"What the Hell is going on", Pat was the first one to get over her shock, not even noticing how she clenched her fists while Buffy tensed up next to her, as well; in response to her question, more gunshots sounded, and they all dropped down out of pure instinct, Ira even shielding his head with his arms, even though he knew that this wouldn't stop any bullets.

"Over there", Buffy finally spotted the reason for all the ruckus, pointing out the direction – and making them all frown when they saw that it weren't demons or other monsters attacking, but a group of soldiers, in identical, futuristic looking steel uniforms, bulky helmets hiding their faces as they marched over the lawn, firing into the air with their heavy rifles.

"What the Hell", the demon repeated her earlier statement, not all too creative, but saying out loud what everyone else was thinking, "soldier guys? That's new."

"Remain calm", one of the soldiers said, his voice strangely muffled by his helmet, "no one will be harmed."

"Why do I find this hard to believe", Xander mumbled, earning an agreeing noise from both Giles and Anya; not sure what to expect, they all slowly straightened up again, since none of the soldiers looked as if they wanted to shoot any of them, watching how they scanned the crowd, clearly looking for someone.

"Whoever they want, I doubt it's just to invite them for tea and cookies", Buffy mumbled to Pat, making the demon nod her agreement, "feel like butting in?"

"You know I'm always up to kick some ass", the demon replied at once, earning a startled look from Sheila, ignoring her fully though, "so we move in before they find whoever they are—"

"Objective located", one of the soldiers said, successfully interrupting her and making her frown in dismay; Buffy rolled her eyes at the bad timing, then hurriedly gave out orders, telling Xander to get Willow's parents out of the danger zone before one look at the demon was enough to set them both in motion, Sheila and Ira reluctantly moving with the young man at his gentle pulling and prodding, glancing back over their shoulders again and again.

"What's happening?" Sheila wanted to know, watching in confusion how Buffy and Pat were striding up to the group of soldiers, the taller woman taking off her jacket as she marched along next to the blonde and rather carelessly tossing it aside, the soldiers ignoring them as they were moving towards one of the just finished students, the young man who had been giving the speech during the ceremony.

"Who are these men?" Ira now added to the questions, finally realizing that Xander tried to steer him away from the action and tearing free of his grip, to the young man's surprise and dismay, "Willow, what is the meaning of this?"

"Not sure", Willow gave back, not wanting to reveal too much about what was pretty much routine for them in Sunnydale, even though soldiers were at least partly new, especially with the Initiative long gone, "but Buffy's right, we should get away, who knows what might happen…"

"If Bunny and your girlfriend antagonize them?" Sheila demanded to know, "nothing good, I imagine! Why are they getting into this? They shouldn't mess with the army!"

"With those uniforms, those guys are not army", Xander pointed out, once more demonstrating that some of his army guy knowledge was still there, "and we should get moving, now!"

Just in this moment, Buffy and Pat reached the group of soldiers, the Slayer calling out "Hey, big guy!", prompting the one closest to her to turn and look at her, the fact that his helmet was keeping her from meeting his eyes unsettling her quite a bit.

"Mind explaining what you want here?" she went on, hiding her discomfort about talking to a steel helmet with cables running from the back of it and into the armour, "cause that guy doesn't look like he has any business with you. Also, you're interrupting a rather festive occasion."

"Kinda rude", Pat added, not just wanting to stand there while Buffy did all the talking; by now, she had opened the two top buttons of her shirt and had rolled the sleeves up to the elbows, giving her more room for fighting, both Buffy and her quite convinced that it wouldn't take long until it'd come to blows.

"We have no business with you", the soldier gave back, then simply turned his back on her; frowning, not liking being dismissed this way, the blonde tapped his shoulder again, only to end up ignored as the soldiers got moving again, approaching the scared looking young man they were targeting.

"Seems like they're in no mood to discuss this", Pat commented, making the Slayer nod with a theatrical sigh before she unhappily glanced down at herself, her next comment making the taller woman smirk slightly. "And I'm wearing one of my best skirts… Oh well."

"Try not to get blood on it", Pat advised her, making her nod yet again – before they, without another word needed, started moving, by now having fought side by side often enough that no talking was necessary anymore to coordinate them, the demon attacking the one to her left while Buffy took on the soldier on the right.

Before the two even knew what was happening, they had been disarmed, their guns wrenched from their grips with fast and skilled moves; another two seconds later, the ammo clips fell to the ground, followed by the guns themselves, the soldiers just having the blink of an eye to realize what was happening before one got an elbow to the head and the other had his legs swiped out beneath him, both of them crashing to the ground.

"Intercept", one of the soldiers barked, again with that strangely metallic voice, "use of lethal force not permitted."

"Lucky us", Pat snarled, shifting into a more stable stance almost in perfect unison with Buffy; the three soldiers still standing moved their guns to the holsters strapped to their back with even more accurate synchronicity, then two of them started moving while the third one turned towards the young man again, and that was when the whole situation went to Hell for both the Slayer and the demon.

* * *

Taking a few steps to meet the soldier focusing on her, Pat pulled her fist back, ready to punch him straight in the helmet, ignoring the fact that this might probably hurt; the moment her fist shot forward though, the soldier seemed to blur in front of her eye, then was gone, the demon just having a second to look startled – before she got kicked in the back and stumbled forward, letting out a grunt which was a mixture of surprise and pain while she twirled around.

Snarling, not letting this stop her, she moved in again, attempting to land a hit or a kick; no matter how fast she tried to attack the soldier though, he always seemed to move out of the way with unnatural speed, each of his blows landing with painful accuracy, the sounds she could hear from her left telling her that Buffy wasn't faring much better.

"What the fuck", she finally growled, getting enough of this, especially since she could feel blood trickle from where one of the punches had split the skin over her cheekbone; unimpressed by her anger and clearly not willing to slow down, the soldier zipped out of the way again when she tried to tackle him, then slammed into her from behind, hard enough to send her flying until she crash-landed on a few of the chairs which still were standing in neat rows.

"Pat!" she heard Willow call out in shock, didn't dare to look though, not taking her eye off the soldier for a second; with another growl, loud enough this time to let Ira and Sheila hear it and prompting them to exchange a startled look, she sprang to her feet and grabbed the chair nearest to her, swinging at the soldier with all the power she could bring up, already anticipating the impact and the splintering of the wood.

Instead, the soldier blurred again, and she missed him completely, losing her balance; and while she still flailed to keep herself from falling flat on her face, the soldier reappeared right next to her, giving her just a second to notice him – before he punched her again, with an uppercut this time, hitting her hard enough to actually lift her off her feet, the breath getting knocked out of her when she slammed to the ground, ending up flat on her back, from the corner of her eye seeing Buffy go down, as well.

"Disengage", she heard one of the soldiers call out, "objective secured", and then the one she had been fighting bent over her and grabbed her; she had a second to realize yet again how strong he was, then his arm shot forward and he actually _threw_ her, the way someone else might throw a baseball, giving her a few seconds to brace for the impact before she hit the ground with terrible force, the impact hard enough to send her off into oblivion.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: This page is being annoying and won't let me upload the word doc as I usually do, so if the formatting is horribly off now, I apologize in advance :/

* * *

"…waking up, guys!" Groaning in reaction to the voice of her lover forcing itself through the darkness all around her, Pat forced her good eye open, momentarily surprised to find herself lying face down on the grass; then, she remembered what had happened, another groan coming from her as she thought of how thoroughly this guy had kicked her butt while she rolled over on her back, Willow bending over her moments later.

"There you are again", she said, relief clearly audible in her voice, "are you okay? Do you feel dizzy?"

"Yes and no", the demon gave back, "ow, that guy really hit hard… Dammit… Is Buffy okay?"

"Mostly", the Slayer answered this herself from somewhere behind Willow, "damn, those guys were fast!"

"And they got the guy", Willow added, helping her partner to sit up while Giles was doing the same for Buffy, the rest of the group standing clustered around them, with the witch's parents still looking shell-shocked, "whatever they want with him…"

"What were you thinking?" Ira butted in before anyone else had the chance to say something, "going up against these men, they had guns! You could have been killed!"

"It's what we do", Buffy told him, ignoring the huff he let out in response; coming to her feet, she limped over to where Pat sat, looking just as banged up as the demon, a bloody cut splitting her eyebrow, blood drying on her cheek.

"I didn't imagine those guys moving so fast that they actually blurred, right?" she wanted to know while Pat came to her feet, making the demon shake her head; they exchanged a worried look, but before this could be discussed further, Ira spoke up yet again, now sounding so angry that it made them all look at him in surprise.

"Excuse me, but why are you discussing this as if it's a normal occurrence?" he wanted to know, crossing his arms over his chest, "you attacked soldiers, for no reason, and endangered all of us with your reckless behaviour! What if they had started shooting?"

"Dad", Willow tried to stop him, with no luck though – instead of calming down, he spun to glare at her, nearly making her take a step back at the ferocity of the anger in his eyes.

"These are the people you choose to spend your time with?" he demanded to know, "your mother and I, we always feared that this… Buffy person isn't good company for you, but this is a new low! And your partner here, the two of them picking a fight with these soldiers! If we still had any say in this matter, we'd make sure to get you away from both of them!"

"Ira", Sheila tried to calm him down this time, but he clearly wasn't in the mood to listen, not even looking at her, while Willow now mimicked his position, crossing her arms over her chest as well, holding his gaze as she glared right back at him, momentarily surprising him with how willing she was to stand up to him, reminding him of the fact that he hadn't seen her for years.

"Well, you don't", she told him, in a cold voice which prompted Buffy to look at her in surprise while her partner put a calming hand on her back, something she didn't even register fully though; for a few seconds, Ira kept holding her gaze, then shook his head and turned away from her, telling his wife in a cold voice that it was time to go.

Giving Willow an apologetic look, Sheila let out a vaguely agreeing noise, then followed her husband, who already was hurrying off; the witch looked after them for a few seconds before she let out a heavy breath and briefly closed her eyes, the way her shoulders slumped down prompting the demon to hurriedly put one arm around her.

"Some reunion, huh", the redhead mumbled after half a minute had ticked by in uncomfortable silence; not sure what to reply to this, the taller woman moved to stand in front of her instead and pulled her into a tender embrace, the witch immediately hugging her back and burying her face in the demon's shoulder, taking in a few deep breaths while Pat tenderly rubbed her back, the rest of the group watching in awkward silence.

"I'm okay", Willow finally mumbled, raising her head again, all of them relieved to see that she hadn't been brought to tears by her father's behaviour, "they know nothing of what goes on here, I should have kept that in mind…"

"Considering that, his reaction was understandable", Giles voiced his agreement, "and it might be hard to explain without giving away the more… peculiar facts about Sunnydale."

"They wouldn't believe it anyway", the witch mumbled, grimacing as she thought back to the last time she had tried to tell her mother about her abilities, "the one time I tried to tell my mom that I'm actually a witch, a real one and not just some deluded teenager, I almost ended up burned at the stake."

"Well, I don't think she'd do that again", Buffy tried to lighten to mood up a bit, "it's more likely that she'll try to psychoanalyze you. And Pat, and me."

"Psh", the demon let out in response to that, "she'll have a lot of fun doing that with me. More than two centuries is a lot of time I can talk about. And this one time, in 1894…"

To the relief of both Buffy and her, this worked just the way they had hoped it would, namely making Willow smile slightly; glad that she had managed to cheer the witch up a bit, the demon gave her a light, reassuring pat on the back, then they finally pulled apart again, the redhead taking in a deep breath while Pat briefly got distracted by Xander handing her the jacket she had dropped just before the disastrous fight had started.

"So", Buffy gained the attention of them all while the demon put her jacket back on, "what do we do now? Investigate this? It didn't look supernatural to me, but as Xander said, I doubt they were regular army guys, and if they really took this guy…"

"Excuse me!" an unfamiliar voice came up before anyone could reply something, prompting them all to turn and look, the owner of said voice turning out to be a small and scrawny guy, with a large bald patch, the few hairs he still had left a mixture of grey and white, peering at them through rimless glasses, "you were the ones who tried to help Trevor, right?"

"Yes", Buffy confirmed, asking herself where this was leading, a question which was answered moments later, the elder man grasping her hand and giving her a pleading look, his desperation clearly audible in his voice when he went on. "Please, you've got to help me… help him… He's my son, and I know why they took him."

* * *

As it turned out, he was a professor at the university, Willow remembering that she'd had a few classes with him on artificial intelligence and how it could be improved; this led her to ask if those soldiers had been robots, something he had declined though, telling her that he'd explain once they were in his office and no one could listen in.

Glancing around nervously, he led them there, looking as if he was expecting to be attacked any second; only once the door of the office had closed behind them, he relaxed, letting out a heavy sigh before he moved to his desk and sat down, giving the group an unhappy look.

"You, young man, were right when you said that these men are not from the army", he then told Xander, not really surprising any of them though, "not directly, anyway. They are close to the government, and I… Well, I made them."

"You made them", Buffy repeated, exchanging a startled look with the others, "and they are not robots? How?"

"They are human", the professor gave back, with a small sigh, "more or less. I suppose it'd be correct to call them clones, even though I didn't have a hand in the process… I just was responsible for… enhancing them."

"Hence why they were so fast and strong", the demon commented, raising an eyebrow, "good job there, buddy."

"Better than expected, actually", the elder man gave back, sounding absurdly proud for a moment – before he remembered the dire situation at hand and returned to a crestfallen expression, another sigh escaping him when Giles demanded to know why they came and took his son, then.

"Because I'm the only one who can do those enhancements", he explained in response, giving the group yet another unhappy look, "there are no blueprints or plans or anything for it, it's all in my head. And when I realized where this is going, I refused to make more… So now, they took my son."

"To blackmail you into making more", Buffy finished for him, making him nod miserably, even though there was a hint of hope in his eyes when he looked at her, his voice trembling just the tiniest bit when he spoke up again.

"I know you all have probably other things to worry about", he told them, his gaze now moving from one member of the group to the next, "but, when I saw the two of you moving in to help him, to stop them… Maybe you can help me get him back…"

"Well", Pat was the first one to speak up in response to that, after they all had shared a brief look, "I really don't like it to get my ass kicked that way, so I'd be glad to pay them back. Do you have any idea where they took him?"

"No", the professor sighed out in response, giving her another unhappy glance, "to the lab perhaps, but they might just as well have locked him up somewhere else, in some secret prison or I don't know…"

"Lab", Buffy repeated, not liking where this was going and having a hunch that she'd like the answer to her question even less, "what lab? Where…?"

"Beneath the town", the elder man confirmed what she had feared, prompting her to exchange a startled look with Willow, "they're using a facility which already was there, when they came here, to work with me… I think they called it…"

"The Initiative", Willow helped him along, glancing at Buffy again in worry, "I thought that place has been sealed and given up. After the whole mess with Adam."

"You know about this?" the professor gave back in surprise, making the Slayer nod grimly while Giles took off his glasses and started to clean them, as he always did when something bothersome was occurring.

"Oh, we know about them", Buffy now confirmed verbally as well, "we were right in the middle when the last big fight between soldiers, scientists and the demons happened. And we were the ones who stopped it."

"So you know the place", the elder man smiled, his hope clearly growing, "know how to get in there? If they keep Trevor there, maybe… maybe you can get him out…"

"We know it", Buffy confirmed, "and we know how to get in… But if they really reactivated the place, it'll probably be crawling with guards. And if they use those guys you… made to guard the lab…"

"I doubt it", the professor gave back, clearly trying to reassure her about her doubts, "there aren't that many of them yet, they won't use them for guard duty. Except perhaps directly at Trevor's cell, if he really is there…"

"Um, sorry to interrupt you, Professor Collard, but I can find out if he is", Willow threw in, making the professor look at her in surprise, "I just… need something personal of him. A piece of clothing, or an item dear to him, a lucky charm or something similar."

"I'm sure there is something you can use in his dorm room", Collard replied, sounding a bit confused now, "but how would this help you to determine if he's there…?"

"Trust me, you'll be better off if you don't know", the demon was the one to answer that, only making him look more confused – before he shrugged it off and just nodded, determination in his gaze when he replied.

"Alright, fine", he mumbled, giving the witch another curious look, but not inquiring further, "I'll get you something…"

"And everything you have about those soldiers", Buffy added, making him nod, "and about the… whole situation. We need to know everything you can provide us with if we're supposed to help your son. Gather it all and meet us at my home in two hours, we'll have some preparations of our own to do."

"So you'll help me?" the professor gave back, sounding so happy and thankful that it made any doubts the group had about this adventure fade away, "really? Thank you so much…"

"We'll see what we can do", Buffy told him, in an attempt to dampen his enthusiasm a bit, even though she could tell from the look on his face that it wasn't really working, "we can't promise you anything yet, but if there is a way we can help him, we'll do it."

"Thank you", Collard said once more, then surprised her by getting up from his seat and moving to hug her; feeling a bit awkward, she patted his back, smiling at him when he finally pulled back again, his eyes glistening with so far unshed tears as he thanked her yet again.

"Don't thank us too early", Buffy once more tried to remind him of the fact that they weren't really sure yet if they could do anything; he nodded in response, but she could tell from the way he was looking at them that he wasn't really willing to accept that, exchanging another look with Willow as she asked herself what they just had gotten themselves into.


	4. Chapter 4

"This is what we get for picking fights with soldiers", Pat sighed out the moment they had stepped out of the building and were on their way to Buffy's home, "we get roped into being superheroes for the guy who claims he made those soldiers."

"We can't even go to a graduation ceremony without attracting trouble", Willow added, smiling though when the taller woman grasped her hand and held on to it tenderly as they walked side by side, "I'm really starting to think it's us."

"That's what happens if you're best friends with the Slayer", Buffy smirked, clearly not all too perturbed by the thought, "creepy things seem to find you."

"Indeed", Willow agreed with a roll of her eyes, making the blonde chuckle slightly; they briefly smiled at each other, then the witch went on, now sounding serious again. "Talking about finding things, should we stop at the Magic Box for supplies? Or do you still have the stuff for the locator spell at your home, Buffy?"

"I still got some of it from the last time you did it", Buffy let her know, to Anya's obvious dismay, since this meant there was no need to buy anything from her, even though Buffy softened the blow a bit when she went on, "but I'm not sure it'll be enough."

"I'll know", Willow reassured her, "no worries… Let's just hope they didn't take him away from Sunnydale, not much use for the spell then."

"I doubt they did, if they're using the labs of the Initiative", Buffy grumbled, glaring at the ground beneath her feet, knowing what was hidden down below, "they have more than enough cells down there, remember?"

"Well, at least they apparently did us the favour of using a place you guys know about", Pat smirked before Willow could reply to that, making the blonde smile as well while she nodded, "that should make getting in and out without being caught easier, right? Especially if they're not using their super soldiers as guards."

"Let's hope he was right about that", Buffy grumbled, grimacing as she remembered how easily just one of them had been enough to take her down, "cause we'll need some major firepower before we go up against them again."

"I'll look something up", Willow promised in response, "something to slow them down perhaps, I used such a spell before… or something to disrupt their enhancements, make them slower _and_ weaker, there has to be a spell for that."

"If not, you can try to make one", Anya shrugged, earning a frown from the redhead, the look prompting the ex-demon to repeat the shrug as she spoke on. "What? You're powerful enough to do that. Where do you think all the spells in all the books come from? Someone had to come up with them."

"That's not so easy", Giles pointed out, shaking his head and giving the brunette a strict look, "even for someone as powerful as Willow. Things can quickly and easily go wrong, and such matters should not be trifled with."

"What Giles said", the witch agreed at once, to his obvious relief, "and I especially shouldn't experiment in such situations, where a spell going wrong could have serious consequences."

"It was just a suggestion", Anya rolled her eyes in response; tuning out how Giles tried to explain again why this wasn't a good idea, especially not with a spell crucial for success in combat, Willow focused on the task at hand again, going through the locator spell and the things she'd need for it, hoping that whatever Professor Collard would bring would be enough to find Trevor and figure out where he was being held captive.

* * *

"As I said, there are no written records about the enhancements", Collard stated one and a half hours later, "so there wasn't much I could bring about the soldiers. I can tell you all you need to know about them though, and I brought this from Trevor's room, I gave it to him when he was little and he kept it ever since…"

With those words, he pulled out a stuffed animal, one the group identified as a dog after taking a closer look; it was clear that it was rather old and had been well loved when the owner had been small, one ear and one eye missing, the fluffy fabric sewn at a few places and quite threadbare in others.

"That should do", Willow told him, taking the dog when he held it out to her; not wanting to do the locator spell in front of the professor, she excused herself to the kitchen where she had readied everything for it, taking her partner along so the taller woman could provide the fire when it'd be needed.

"Let's hope Buffy doesn't forget to ask any of the important questions", Pat mumbled to her as they made their way to the kitchen table where the map and the ingredients were already waiting, "not that I don't trust your magic, but the more we know about these guys, the easier it'll be to fight them."

"Yes", Willow agreed, sitting down in front of the map and quickly glancing over the ingredients once more to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be, "it was really creepy how fast they moved, like Buffy said, they kinda… blurred. And it was even scarier when he grabbed you and threw you, when you didn't move afterwards, I thought you'd been seriously hurt!"

"Nah", the demon calmed her down at once, moving to stand next to her so she could set the ingredients on fire easily once it'd be needed, "I'm harder to take down than that, you know that."

"Yes", the witch agreed yet again, smiling at her, "our countless adventures proved this quite well by now. Still I can't help worrying."

"It'd be a bad sign for our relationship if you didn't care", Pat pointed out with a smirk, earning another nod and a giggle from the redhead; for a few moments, the two shared a smile, then the taller woman bent down for a tender kiss, one which started out quite innocent, but soon deepened, a low, content "Hmmm" sound coming from the witch as they pulled apart again.

"Too bad this had to happen today", she then mumbled, smiling up at the still standing demon while she ran the tips of her fingers down her cheek to her neck, her hand coming to a tender rest there, "I had such great plans for our… private celebration."

"Think of it as postponed, not cancelled", the taller woman gave back, making the redhead smile once more; then, she cleared her throat and reminded herself and her partner of the task at hand, forcing herself to focus on the spell and giving her best to ignore the tingling the kiss had caused to well up in a certain area.

 _Get a grip,_ she told herself, glancing briefly at her partner as she wondered if Pat was having similar feelings and was just having better control over them, then realized that this probably was the case – after all, if the black haired woman would have her way, they'd spend more time in bed than anywhere else.

"Okay!" she said out loud, with a bit more fervour than necessary, prompting the demon to raise an eyebrow at her curiously, "I'm all set. Ready to go. You, too?"

"Yeah", Pat reassured her, giving her another curious glance, "you okay?"

"Of course", Willow gave back at once, just a bit too quickly, "why wouldn't I be? I'm just… oh nevermind…"

"I think we have the same… problem", the demon told her with a slight snicker, making the redhead blush, "you sure you should do the spell right now? Maybe you should cool off a bit first. Think unsexy thoughts."

"I can do it", the witch reassured her, clearing her throat and, with another effort of will, her mind; the fact that the taller woman had taken a step back from her helped with doing so, and after a few deep breaths, she felt ready for the magic, focusing on the ingredients as she took the stuffed toy with one hand and started the chant, making sure to keep her voice low so Collard wouldn't hear her in the living room.

While she spoke, she dropped the ingredients into the bowl, one by one, crumbling the herbs and spreading the powders over them; and the moment she said the last word, a small flame flickered to life on her girlfriend's fingers, and with an almost casual gesture, she sent it flying, right into the bowl, the ingredients vanishing into nothingness with an audible _foomph._

Holding her breath, the witch kept her gaze focused on the map, Pat doing the same next to her; and after half a minute of decidedly nothing happening, a small glow flickered to life, on a portion of the map the redhead immediately identified as part of the Initiative.

"He's there", she mumbled, glancing up at her partner, "I know this light points to the forest, but not too far from there, there's one of the entrances, the one we used when we went down to fight Adam…"

"So now we know for sure", Pat gave back, stepping closer again and almost absent-mindedly placing one hand on the smaller woman's back, unknowingly sending shivers up and down her spine, "now we have to figure out how to get him out."


	5. Chapter 5

"We'll go in at night", Buffy started the planning for the rescue mission just a few minutes later, after the couple had returned to the living room and Willow had told the professor that his son was indeed in the labs of the Initiative, all of them once more refusing to tell him how exactly they had found out, "that'll help conceal us on the way to the entrance. I would suggest the whole scientist and soldier getup again, but I doubt they'll buy that, if it's really a small operation."

"It is", Collard confirmed, "so what will you do to make sure they don't catch you?"

"It'll be Willow, Pat and me who'll go", Buffy told him in response. "Before we go in, Willow will… um… make sure they don't notice us. She can do that, but again, don't ask how. Once she did that, they shouldn't be able to see and hear us unless they make direct contact, which we will try to avoid, and we'll get your son and get back out before they even realize what is going on. Xander will wait nearby with his car and will take us back here."

"And if you like, you can wait here with us", Giles added, "you should be safe here from anyone they might send after you. Anya, Dawn and me will keep you company."

"That's very kind of you", Collard gave back, looking a bit confused at the constant refusal of the gang to tell him details about they knew where his son was and how the redhead planned to camouflage them, "but… Not to be rude or anything, but why exactly do you keep telling me I shouldn't ask about this or that?"

When no one responded at first, he glanced at them again, now frowning slightly – before he focused on Willow, sounding slightly imploring again as he went on, giving her such a pleading look that it made her shift uncomfortably on her seat.

"Miss Rosenberg", he addressed her directly now, then corrected himself, "sorry, I mean, Doctor Rosenberg… What exactly did you do in the kitchen? And how will you keep them from noticing you? Please, why can't you tell me?"

"Because it might… upset you", Willow gave back after hesitating for a few seconds, "there are… things and… abilities… which might be hard to believe. Especially for someone who's devoted his life to science."

"…alright", he gave back after a moment, looking more confused than ever; before he could say anything else though, Buffy quickly spoke up again, making him look at her once more.

"I promise you that we won't do anything which might endanger your son", she let him know, making him smile slightly, "our first and foremost concern is to get him out as fast as possible. Once you got him back, we can consider the next steps to put an end to this mess."

"Thank you so much", Collard sighed, his eyes glistening yet again, making them all slightly uncomfortable, "I don't know how to thank you for this… and I feel bad for dragging your group into this whole situation, but after I saw you take on the soldiers at the ceremony…"

"It's what we do", Buffy repeated her earlier statement about her heroic behaviour, making Pat smirk slightly as she nodded her agreement; for a moment, they both feared that Collard might want to give one or both of them another hug, but to their slight relief, he did no such thing this time, merely smiling at them again instead.

"Okay", Buffy broke the uncomfortable silence before it fully had had the chance to form, "Willow, you better get home and make sure you have everything you need for the… camouflage. We'll meet here again at, let's say, nine?"

"Fine with me", Willow nodded, her partner mimicking the gesture next to her; they told Buffy to take care, then reassured Collard once more that everything would be okay before they left the house and headed home, eager to prepare everything they'd need for their nightly venture underground.

* * *

The moment Willow stepped through the apartment door, all thoughts of the spells she would need to work soon were forgotten, as the feelings she had been harbouring ever since the kiss in the Summers kitchen took over; and thus, the moment Pat had closed and locked the door and had turned to look at her lover again, she found herself pushed against the wood behind her, in a tight embrace while the witch kissed her rather hungrily.

For a second, the demon thought of the fact that there were quite a few things which should be taken care of, then her lust blended out those thoughts and, without breaking the kiss, she removed her jacket so fast that she almost tore it, carelessly throwing it aside.

Still kissing her deeply, Willow took over the undressing for her, hurriedly opening the buttons of her shirt; and while she did so, they somehow managed to move away from the apartment door and to the living room couch, the shirt ending up on the floor between the anteroom and the couch there.

"Whoa", Pat brought out as they finally had pulled apart again, due to oxygen becoming an issue, "you channelling me again? Normally, I'm the fierce one."

"Don't tell me you mind", Willow almost panted in reply, already working on her belt buckle; in response, the demon let out a low growl, then found the zipper at the back of her dress and hurriedly pulled it down, this being enough of an answer to make the redhead smile slightly –before she kissed the taller woman once more, both of them unable to think of anything but each other just a few minutes later.

* * *

"Okay", Willow mumbled quite some time later, letting out a heavy, exhausted breath, "that was worth the postponing."

"Tell me about it", Pat gave back, shifting on the couch slightly, mindful of the fact that her partner was lying halfway on top of her, not wanting to accidentally throw her off, "that was… wow. Huh. I can't find the words."

"Me neither", the witch giggled, now feeling slightly cold as the heat of the lovemaking was fading and she realized that she was fully naked, goosebumps forming on her arms and prompting her to look around for something to cover herself with.

"I'm getting cold", she pointed out what was quite obvious to her partner, "and we sweated quite a bit now, so maybe it'd be wise to take a shower…"

"A good idea indeed", Pat agreed at once, smirking at her, the smirk and the lusty glint in her good eye telling the redhead that she knew exactly what she had been aiming for when she had made the remark, proving this even further with what she said next. "And you know what they say about saving water for the environment, so maybe we should share a shower…"

"Good idea", Willow giggled, coming to her feet and prompting the demon to do the same; smiling at each other, they shared another kiss, a slow and tender one this time, then headed for the bathroom together, eager to make the most of the time they'd still have before the preparations for the evening's task would begin.

* * *

"Alright", Buffy mumbled several hours later, making sure to keep her voice down, "Willow, you ready for the spell?"

"Yes", the witch confirmed at once, holding up the small bag she had brought along as if to underline her words, "all set. Just give a minute…"

And with those words, she opened the bag, then started forming a careful circle with the powder it contained; once this had been finished, she stepped inside it, then held out her hands, asking the demon and the Slayer to join her and complete it, the two of them doing so at once, each of them grasping one of Willow's hands and each other's.

"Close your eyes", the witch instructed, giving her best to sound calming and reassuring, knowing that at least Buffy tended to get nervous about having spells put on her, "and don't move or make a sound. It's not the easiest spell, so any distractions might be really bad."

"Okay", Buffy mumbled, then shut up and squeezed her eyes shut; Pat closed her good one as well, handling this much better than the Slayer, the witch figuring that this was caused by her natural inclination for magic, a smile momentarily curling her lips before she took in a deep breath and focused, reaching for the magic within her, feeling the power fire up the moment she consciously touched it.

"Goddess Hecate, hear my call", she whispered, tightening her grip on the hands of her best friend and her loved one slightly, without even noticing that she was doing it, "shield us from harm, hide us from their eyes, make them mute to our steps…"

The powder circle around them began to glow, bathing them in bright blue light; keeping her focus on the magic, Willow repeated the chant, and the moment she finished for the second time, the powder vanished as a soft breeze came up, ruffling the hair of the three women before it died down again.

"I think it worked", the redhead mumbled, trying to figure out if she felt any different, but to her dismay not able to figure it out, "either way, you can open your eyes again."

"I don't feel any different", Pat commented, frowning slightly, "but, well, I suppose there's only one way to find out. Ready to go?"

"As ready as I'll ever be", Buffy gave back, already moving over to the entrance; one powerful pull was enough to open it, making her wonder why it hadn't been locked, alarm bells ringing in the back of her head as she stared into the dark tunnel which laid behind it.

"Why wasn't it locked?" she asked out loud when Willow spoke up in concern, asked her if something was wrong; she turned to look at her friends, with the intention to ask them if they didn't think this was weird, when the bright lights came on all around them, successfully blinding all three of them, a low curse coming from the demon as she tried to shield her good eye from the glaring illumination.

"He set us up!" she then cursed, the three of them automatically moving so that they were standing back to back, "that fucktard!"

"And you fell for it hook, line and sinker", an unknown voice commented from somewhere behind the bright lights, making her growl lowly in the back of her throat, but still loud enough to let the speaker hear it, even though he didn't seem all too impressed, as it showed through his voice when he spoke on. "Your need to be heroes, so accommodating to our needs and plans. Really, we should thank you. Take them down."

Bringing up her fists, Pat let out another growl, getting ready to fight as she anticipated the soldiers to step out of the circle of light surrounding them; instead though, a soft whooshing noise reached her ears, followed by a stinging sensation in her neck, another low curse coming from her as she reached up and pulled out the dart which had hit her, seeing that Buffy and Willow had been hit by duplicates of the one she was holding now.

"Guys", she heard Willow groan next to her before she could make any sense of this, "I don't… feel so…" She swayed, then stumbled and went down, pure instinct prompting the taller woman to try and catch her; the moment she took the first step though, the world blurred in front of her, then started spinning around her, a low groan coming from her as she slumped down to her knees as well.

"Reaction time best for the witch, with the demon a close second", she heard a new voice speak up, "and the Slayer… There she goes."

 _They know,_ Pat still had time to think as Buffy slumped down to the ground, surprised to find herself now lying as well, asking herself when that happened, _they know who and what we are… how do they…_

Footsteps approached her, and since turning her head to get a better look had become an unbelievably difficult task, she rolled her good eye in a vain attempt to glance at the man marching closer to her; and then, darkness engulfed her and took her away, her last thought a desperate plea to whoever might listen that they wouldn't let Willow get hurt after her failure to protect her from this.


	6. Chapter 6

The first thing Willow noticed as she came back around was how much her head hurt, and she groaned, her first instinct being to reach up with one hand; and seconds later, shock forced her to wake up fully as she realized she couldn't move her hands, her eyes flying open, dread filling her when she found herself sitting in a cold metal chair, wrists and ankles shackled to the armrests and the chair's legs.

"Subject Rosenberg has woken up, Sir", she heard someone behind her say, twisting in her seat in an attempt to spot them, not liking to be referred to as a subject; some vaguely agreeing noise could be heard, then someone moved closer to her, stepping around the chair to face her, her eyes going wide when she found herself looking at Trevor Collard, the young man smiling back at her as he studied her through his rimless glasses, then consulted the clipboard he was holding.

"Out for almost two hours", he told her, handing the clipboard to one of the soldiers next to him, and putting his hands into the pockets of his white lab coat, "I never would have thought for the sedative to work so well. How are you feeling?"

"Angry", Willow snapped, pulling at her bonds, even though she knew she wasn't strong enough to break them, "what the Hell is going on! And where are Buffy and Pat!"

"Don't worry, they're safe", Trevor reassured her, giving her another smile, "and, as for what is going on, I think your partner summed it up quite well. We set this up, and you walked right into it. Really, I would have thought it'd be harder to get you, but it was almost laughably easy."

He smirked, as if he just had told her some kind of joke, then took a step closer to her; holding his gaze, she glared at him, trying hard to not let her fear show, telling herself that she had to be brave and bold to get out of this.

"Just as well", he went on, "because now that we got you here, I can make our offer. And the faster you agree, the faster you, and your friend and your lover, will be allowed to go back home."

"What do you want from me", Willow asked after a moment, even though she wasn't sure she wanted to know; not answering her at once, Trevor gestured at the man to his right instead, the soldier marching off and returning with a chair moments later, positioning it so that the young man would face the witch once he'd sit down, something he did a few seconds later.

"Nothing all too taxing, I promise", he told her, giving her another amiable smile, looking just like the boy next door and not like the man who had caused so much trouble for them, "just a bit of magic. You are familiar with my father's soldiers, yes?"

"…yes", Willow gave back, slightly stunned that he talked about her magic so casually, asking herself how he could have known; then, she remembered the field trip they had taken not all too long ago, how she had used her magic there, with regular people around to see, people who apparently had gossiped about her abilities and who had found at least a few to believe them.

"Then you know that they are strong, and fast", Trevor continued, "faster and stronger than an average human. Faster and stronger than a demon and a Slayer, even, as the little fight at the ceremony demonstrated. But they are still vulnerable, and I want you to change that."

"No", Willow gave back at once, even though she didn't want to know what the refusal might mean for her, or her loved ones; to her surprise, Trevor didn't get angry, but merely smiled again, leaning back comfortably in his chair as he replied.

"Can't say this is surprising", he told her, "I expected you to say that, and am prepared for it. Just so you know, you can save yourself a lot of… discomfort if you just agree now."

"What if I don't", the witch snapped, still forcing herself to keep a calm and brave façade, even though her stomach was clenching up at the thought of what he might do to her, "what are you gonna do then? Torture me?"

"Torture you", Trevor gave back, sounding honestly surprised, "no, of course not. We're not savages! But you still might want to reconsider. Is this your final answer?"

"Yes", the redhead gave back, without missing a beat; with a sigh, the young man shook his head, then stood up from his seat and turned towards the soldier who had been standing behind it, the witch's blood running cold at how casually he said the next words. "You heard her. Put her in sensory deprivation and mix in a batch of A-23. A few hours should do the trick."

Nodding, the soldier gestured at one of his comrades, who immediately moved to his side; they made their way to the chair and started to unlock the manacles while Trevor smiled at Willow yet again, clearly enjoying the fact that now, she couldn't hide her terror anymore.

"We won't torture you", he told her as the soldiers finally freed her and pulled her up from the chair, "you'll do it all on your own. Oh, and don't bother with trying any magic, it won't work down here. You'll only end up getting hurt."

He gave her another smile as her eyes widened at his words, then nodded at the two men; and with their grip on her arms tightening, they dragged her away, ignoring her struggles, Trevor watching them go with the smirk never leaving his face.

* * *

Before she had come to Sunnydale for the very first time, all those years ago, Pat had done her research on the rather colourful history of the town, gathering information on the gang and, even though they hadn't been active anymore when she had come there, on the Initiative; and thus, she knew where she was as she came back around, grumbling to herself as she found herself in a brightly lit cell, one of the walls replaced with a glass pane, giving her a good look of the empty hallway.

"Great, just great", the demon muttered as she came to her feet, ignoring the dull throbbing in her head; a quick look around the cell told her that there was nothing she could use to get out, the white tiled floor and walls completely bare of anything, and when she touched the glass pane, it sent an electrical jolt up her arm, prompting her to let out a curse as she hurriedly pulled her hand back.

"Pat?" Buffy's voice reached her ears before she could come up with a way out of this, "that was you, right? Are you there?"

"Right here", the taller woman replied, automatically turning into the direction the voice had come from, even though doing so merely made her face the wall, "you okay?"

"Yeah", Buffy reassured her, moving closer to the wall in her cell, "never would have thought I'd see those cells from the inside. And I got a headache."

"Me too", Pat grumbled, "so you know how to get us out of here? And Willow's not in one of those cells, is she?"

"If she is, she's still out cold, cause she would have said something by now", Buffy pointed out, "and no, I have no idea how to get out of them. It never came up when I was dating Riley…"

"Too bad", Pat sighed, "well, we'll just have to figure it out then. Most logical thing seems to break the glass, but I doubt it'll be that easy."

"Of course not", the Slayer gave back with a roll of her eyes, "I doubt it can be broken easily, and it's electrified or something."

"Well", the demon smirked, "I guess we'll just have to see how hot I can make my fire then, huh?"

"Make sure you don't heat up my cell", Buffy advised in response, smirking as well now; the only response she got was a vaguely agreeing noise, followed by the sounds of the taller woman transforming – and then the roar of her fire as she started attacking the glass with it, a bright stream of flames shooting from her hands and against the pane.

"Is it working?" Buffy called out after a minute, hearing a low grunt in reply; the fire kept roaring for a bit longer, then stopped – followed by the sound of shattering glass, a smile forming on Buffy's face when moments later, Pat stood in front of her cell.

"The fire must have shortened out the electricity or something", the taller woman told her while she started expecting the card reader which opened the cell door, "cause I could break it fairly easy after heating it enough."

"So do it again", Buffy demanded, growing a bit impatient and having more than enough of being locked up, "I really want to get…"

Before she could finish the sentence, Pat had grabbed the card reader and ripped it out of the wall, sparks of electricity shortening out of the torn cables for a few seconds before they died down and the glass slid aside.

"That works too", Buffy shrugged after a moment of surprise, stepping out of the cell; they both glanced left and right, then the demon focused on the Slayer again, concern in her voice now as she spoke up again. "So where do we go now? If Willow's not here, who knows what they are doing to her or where they're keeping her."

"I wonder what they want with us, or her", Buffy pondered out loud, "why set us up like that? As much as I hate to admit it, it's not like the two of us were much of a match for those soldier guys."

"Don't remind me of that", Pat grumbled, "so embarrassing. But there must be something they want from her, or from us, or they wouldn't have set us up like that. If I get my hands on that old guy…"

"Remember, human", the blonde reminded her of this not unimportant fact, earning a low snort from her, "but punching him will be alright. But first, we have to find Willow and figure out how to get out of here, before they realize we are out of the cells and send the super soldiers after us."

"Right", the demon agreed at once, "any idea where they might have taken her? You've been down here before, right?"

"Yes, but if she's not in one of the cells, I have no idea where else she might be", Buffy sighed, "so I guess we'll have to do it the old fashioned way and search, as fast as we can."

"Let's go then", Pat replied, earning a nod from the Slayer; she took another moment to glance around, then settled for the right and headed this way, the demon right behind her, both of them eager to find the witch before something dreadful might be done to her by the ones responsible for the whole situation.


	7. Chapter 7

At first, the images were peaceful as she floated in complete darkness, the only sound she could hear being her own breathing and the soft splashing whenever she moved; she didn't know how long she had been in there already when she started seeing the images, a surprisingly detailed one of her partner at first, then memories about the love they shared, times of intimacy and of loving kisses.

It went on long enough to make her wonder what the point of this was, how they thought to change her mind about helping them with making her see those things; and then, the images started to change, fear filling her at the horrid things which started to appear in front of her mind's eye.

 _\- blood on a wooden floor as the woman she loved died in her arms, so shortly after they had found each other again –_

 _\- an arrow hitting its mark, going all the way through her chest and killing her within seconds –_

 _\- a deranged woman in a supermarket, slicing her throat without a second of hesitation –_

 _\- another one like her, male and dangerous, snapping her neck like a toothpick –_

 _\- her body, shattered and broken on the sidewalk after the drop from all that height, blood pooling beneath her as she laid lifelessly –_

 _\- a wolf, tearing her apart and ripping out her throat –_

 _\- a priest, grabbing her and making her scream as he caved both her eyes in, then dropped her and left her to die –_

 _\- a deranged man shooting her in the head, just as they arrived to get her out of his grasp…_

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make it stop, crying out in the darkness as more and more images flooded her, her lover dying again and again as the challenges they faced so often went wrong one way or another; and then, she saw everyone else she cared about dying as well, her pleas to make it stop ignored as the images just kept coming, until she was sure that she was just about to lose her mind.

* * *

They had been sneaking through the hallways for what felt like an eternity, even though Pat knew that it hadn't even been half an hour; to their surprise and slight worry, they hadn't ran into anyone during their search, neither soldiers, nor scientists, giving them cause to wonder how official this whole project really was.

"I can't believe we haven't seen anyone so far", Buffy whispered as they rounded another corner, making the demon nod her agreement, "let's hope this is not another trap."

"Indeed", Pat grumbled, moving to the door nearest to her and briefly listening before she opened it, peering into the empty room behind it, "wouldn't be surprised if that turned out to be true…"

"Shht", Buffy almost hissed in response, moving over to her with surprising speed and pushing her into the room, earning a look which was a mixture of surprise and annoyance – before Pat heard it as well, frowning as she identified the noise as the footsteps of two men, approaching them.

"If those are two of those super guys, we can't fight them", Buffy whispered, pushing the door close until it was slightly ajar, allowing them to hear what the two men were saying as they approached.

"…need to make them invulnerable, too", one of them was saying, sounding quite annoyed, to the amusement of both the Slayer and the demon, "it's not like anyone can get close enough to actually harm them. And doing this to the girl, just doesn't seem right."

Buffy just had a second to realize what they were talking about, then she heard the taller woman growl behind her – and then Pat had moved past her and out into the hallway, startled noises coming from the two soldiers as they suddenly found themselves faced with an enraged woman, both of them just having a moment to realize she was one of the three they had captured before she had grabbed them and lifted them off the ground with startling ease.

"Where is she", she snarled, ignoring how they both started to struggle, "you tell me now or I'll break your neck!"

"Please don't", the smaller of the two pressed out, his face reddening as her grip on him was cutting off his flow of air, "we'll tell you, just put us down…"

"She'll put you down after you told her", Buffy threw in, making him glance at her, "so you better tell it quickly."

"Room 128", he panted, looking at the taller woman fearfully when she let out another growl, "now please…"

In response, Pat let out another growl – and then knocked them both out efficiently and quickly by slamming their heads together, dropping the unconscious bodies to the floor moments later, then bending down and snatching the key card from one of them.

"Let's go", she then grumbled, making Buffy nod, "you know where this room is?"

"Not far from here", the blonde gave back, bending down as well and disarming the two men, handing one of the guns to the demon before she tucked the other one into the hem of her pants, "let's hope we won't need those, but better we have them than they do. Just follow me…"

Letting out a vaguely agreeing noise, Pat nodded as well; the Slayer gave her a moment to place a calming hand on her arm, silently telling her that surely, Willow would be okay, then she got moving again, the demon right behind her, both of them straining their ears to make sure they wouldn't miss any noises which would indicate anyone else approaching them.

To their luck, they didn't run into anyone else though, again making them wonder why there were so few people around; then, they decided to just accept it as being lucky for once, Buffy keeping her eyes on the room numbers as she marched down the hallway, past the rooms 122, 124 and 126.

"If he told the truth, she should be in there", she whispered to the taller woman, wanting to suggest that she should go in first, just in case something dreadful had been done to the witch; before she could make that suggestion though, Pat had already moved past her yet again and into the room, stopping dead in her tracks there as she found herself looking at a row of white, cylindrical tanks, frowning as she tried to figure out what they were used for.

"What the Hell", she mumbled, taking a tentative step closer to them, as if expecting them to explode; then, she noticed the small red light burning on top of one of the tanks, her frown deepening as she moved closer to it. Another look at the tank let her notice that a now empty bag had been attached to one of the valves on top of it; and suddenly, dread filled her, her heartbeat speeding up as she moved closer to the tank with fast steps, not even noticing that Buffy was right behind her.

A quick look showed her how to open the tank, the mechanism thankfully not all too complicated – all she had to do was move a latch, then pull up the lid, and the second it had been lifted, she could hear her lover's voice from the darkness within the tank, crying softly, mumbling "stop, please make it stop" between sobs.

"Hush, it's okay", Pat brought out after a moment of shock, asking herself what had happened to her lover in there; it looked harmless enough, just water which was surprisingly warm to the touch when she reached in to help her partner out, momentarily startled again when she realized that the witch was as naked as she had been on the day she had been born.

"Find her something to wear", she mumbled into Buffy's direction without even looking at her; nodding, the blonde took off, the demon not noticing how she left the room, fully focused on her partner again.

"It's okay, it's me, Buffy and me are gonna get you out of here", she said in the most soothing voice she could manage, her concern only growing when at first, Willow didn't even react to her words, but only continued sobbing; not sure what to do, the demon took tender hold of her arms, slightly relieved when the contact was enough to at least make the redhead look at her.

"It's okay", she said for the third time, bending further over the tank to help the witch get out of it; and suddenly, Willow was clinging to her, shivering hard enough to make her teeth chatter, prompting the demon to quickly wrap both arms around her and hold her, rubbing her back soothingly while her mind was racing, trying to figure out what had been done to her partner, even though she already knew she wouldn't find any answers until Willow herself would tell her.


	8. Chapter 8

By the time Buffy finally came back, with the lab coat she had found in a nearby room in hand, Pat had managed to get Willow out of the tank, now crouching on the floor with the still shivering witch in her arms; giving the taller woman a worried look, Buffy handed her the lab coat, mumbling that this was all she had been able to find and earning a distracted nod from the demon.

"Willow", Pat then tried to gain her partner's attention again, "come on, we have to get out of here… I just need you to put this on, then we'll get you home, alright?"

"Jesus", Buffy brought out behind her, watching how the demon, with some more mumbled coercing and reassuring, managed to get Willow to her feet, keeping an arm around her waist the whole time, "what the Hell did they do to her?"

"No idea", Pat sighed, briefly glancing at her before her attention moved back to the redhead and to getting the lab coat on her, "I'm not even sure I really want to know."

"Me neither", Buffy mumbled, keeping an eye on the hallway while the demon finally figured that getting the witch to actually put on the coat was impossible in her current state and wrapped her up in it instead, then picked her up on her arms, "we gotta get her out of here, quickly."

"Right there with ya", Pat agreed, her heart clenching up at how Willow was still clinging to her, the redhead having stopped crying by now, but still looking shell-shocked, "lead the way, we can figure out how to deal with those guys once we got her home and she's safe…"

"Don't let them get me again", Willow whimpered in response, prompting her partner to slightly tighten her grip on her in an attempt to reassure her, "please, don't let them…"

"I won't", the demon promised her at once, earning another sniffle from her while she clung to her even tighter, until it almost hurt; momentarily, the black haired woman felt like hunting down Collard and do a lot of horrible things to him, things she wouldn't dare to say out loud in front of the Slayer, then grit her teeth as she forced the anger down, telling herself that getting Willow out and to safety was more important now than her desire for vengeance.

"Come on", she thus told Buffy, growing impatient, a feeling which wasn't helped by how Willow was trembling in her arms, "lead the way, and hurry."

Nodding, Buffy hurried to the door, peering down the hallway before she stepped outside, one hand on the barrel of the gun she had taken from one of the guards; briefly, this gave Pat cause to wonder if the blonde actually knew how to use a weapon, then she shrugged it off, focusing on her surroundings and straining her ears to hear anyone who might approach them before they might notice them.

"I can't believe there are just so few guards", Buffy whispered, as if she had read her mind, "shouldn't the place be crawling with them? When I was searching for clothing, I ran into no one!"

"Strange indeed", Pat agreed, keeping her voice down as well while Willow just kept clutching to her lover, hiding her face in the taller woman's shoulder, "I know I'm probably jinxing it right now, but I got a bad feeling about this."

"You're right", a third voice added before the Slayer could reply anything, startling them both into stopping while the witch let out a breathless whimper as she saw the speaker, her trembles only increasing, "I'm afraid it's the end of your little escape now."

"So you're in on this", Pat gave back, glaring at the young man, "makes sense, the whole setup was just too perfect. What do you want from us?"

"From the Slayer and from you, nothing", Trevor gave back while two of what Buffy had dubbed "the super soldiers" stepped into the hallway behind him, "I'm just interested in the witch. Speaking of which, how are you feeling, Willow? More cooperative, or need some more time in the tank?"

"No", the redhead whimpered in reply, sounding so scared and desperate that it simultaneously made Pat's heart clench up and filled her with deep-seated, familiar rage, "please, no, don't put me in there again, please…"

"You won't touch her", the demon growled, Buffy giving her an alarmed look when her good eye flashed up bright red, "I don't know what you did to her, but I'll make you regret you ever laid a finger on her."

"You'll have a hard time doing that", Trevor gave back, unimpressed, "because I didn't touch her and because you'll be dead in a few minutes. As I said, I don't really have need for you. I did think about keeping you, just to convince our lovely witch here to help, but since the drug works so well, I really don't need to keep the two of you around."

And with those words, he turned to his soldiers, adding "Kill them" in an uncaring and cold voice; a strangled whimper came from the redhead, and for a moment, she felt like crying out and clinging to her lover when Pat started to lower her to the ground, forcing herself to let go of her instead though, knowing that the black haired woman would need her fists to fight those men.

Growling quite loudly by now, the demon stepped forward, making sure that she was between Trevor, his soldiers and her lover – before she pulled out the gun and, without hesitation, opened fire on them, the shots deafeningly loud in the narrow hallway, drowning out the startled shout Trevor let out.

* * *

The second she started shooting, the soldiers started moving, with that uncanny speed again, so fast that they blurred; they both shielded Trevor from the bullets, one of them twitching as they hit him before he went down, the other one aiming his rifle at the demon, only to have Trevor shout "no!" behind him, sharp enough to make him hesitate.

"You can't shoot her, numbskull", he added as the soldier lowered his rifle again, "you might hit the witch!"

"Our aim is perfect", the soldier replied, kept the gun down though, briefly making the demon wonder if the soldier actually was physically unable to act against orders from the young man; and then, the soldier slung his rifle onto his back and started moving towards the two of them, his companion still down on the ground, blood seeping from the bullet holes in his upper body.

"At least they can be killed", Buffy mumbled to the taller woman while she slid into a fighting stance, the demon doing the same next to her, nodding her agreement; behind them, Willow was trying to crawl into the wall, her eyes never leaving Trevor, still filled with fear and terror.

"But we know they're good at hand to hand", Pat still had time to remind her – before the soldier unexpectedly blurred into motion again, zooming down the hallway and slamming into Buffy hard enough to send her flying, a low grunt coming from her as she hit the floor.

"Damn you", Pat cursed, letting her fists flame up now that no one who would be shocked by this was around to see, "coward, stand still and fight like a man!"

In response, the soldier turned towards her, just in time to get a burning fist straight in the face; there was a low, metallic _clang_ as the demon punched his helmet, and managed to hit him hard enough to actually make him stumble back a few steps – before he blurred yet again, moving past her so fast it nearly made her head spin, his foot shooting out and smashing into the hollow of her knee with painful aim and strength, her strangled cry of pain mixing with the awfully loud snapping sound coming from somewhere within her leg as she went down on the other one.

"Oooh, ouch", Trevor commented, a nasty smirk curling his lips, "it can't be good to hear that coming from inside you. Come on, finish her, and then the Slayer, we don't have time to play."

"No", Pat heard Willow whimper behind the soldier, the desperation and fear in the redhead's voice giving her a new burst of strength; ignoring the pain in her leg, she tightened her grip on the gun, letting it happen that the soldier grabbed her at the throat and lifted her off her feet, a move she was quite fond of, as well, another chuckle coming from Trevor at the sight.

"Bet you regret it now that you wasted all your bullets on one guy, huh", he then teased while the grip around her throat started to cut off her flow of air; still she smirked, just long enough to let the soldier holding her notice, his eyes widening behind his helmet – before she brought up her arm and pressed the gun into the gap between the helmet and his throat, hearing Trevor cry out behind her.

"Problem is", she then pressed out between grit teeth, the grip the soldier had on her tightening, even though he had to know it'd be fruitless, "I didn't."

And then, just as he reached up as well, she pulled the trigger; the gunshot was deafeningly loud again, and seconds later, she was back on the ground, biting back a yelp when her injured leg hit the floor, then gave in beneath her, sending her down on all fours with a low _thud,_ a vaguely relieved noise coming from Willow as the soldier swayed on his feet, blood running out from beneath his helmet – before he fell, hitting the ground with a low thud, his arms and legs twitching a few times before he laid still.

"Well", the demon growled, turning to face the shocked Trevor, managing to look quite menacing even though she still couldn't stand up, "looks like it's just you against us now."

In response, Trevor stared at her for a few more seconds, his eyes wide and full of shock – and then he turned and ran off, prompting the taller woman to let out a harsh curse as she realized that, after what the soldier had done to her leg, there was no way she could chase him and stop him before he could get reinforcements.

"Buffy", she thus snapped, glad when her voice was enough to tear the Slayer out of her impact-induced stupor at last, "help me up and then get Willow, we have to get out of here, fast!"

Still looking a bit dazed, Buffy nodded, hurrying to where Willow was still sitting, mumbling reassuring and calming words to her while she picked her up, the redhead immediately clinging to her; at the same time, Pat was using the wall for support as she struggled to her feet, gritting her teeth against the pain in her leg, giving her best to ignore the fact that it felt as if it would give in beneath her again any second as she stated moving down the hallway as fast as she could, still using the wall for support.

"Why don't you demon out and heal that", Buffy wanted to know as she caught up to her, earning only a grumbled "no time now" in reply; even though she wasn't sure if this was true, the blonde decided to accept it after a moment, merely nodding as she moved past the taller woman and took the lead again, eager to get them all out of there before Trevor might come back with more of his soldiers and do even more damage than he already had.


	9. Chapter 9

To the relief of the group, they made it out of the labs in safety, without running into Trevor or his soldiers again; and once they were at a safe distance from the exit they had used, Pat demoned out to heal, grimacing and gritting her teeth when something deep within her leg snapped back into place, loud enough to let Buffy hear it.

"Ouch", the Slayer commented, still holding Willow in her arms, the witch by now not trembling anymore, but still clinging to her, her gaze fixed on the demon, "that guy really did some damage, didn't he?"

"Yeah", Pat grumbled, waiting a bit longer just to be on the safe side before she changed back, "you can say that again. Good thing I can heal."

"Indeed", Buffy agreed, not surprised when moments after finishing the transformation back to her human form, the demon stepped up to her and carefully took Willow out of her arms; immediately, the redhead clung to her partner again, a shudder running through her as she buried her face in the taller woman's shoulder.

Again, Buffy exchanged a worried look with the demon, both of them asking themselves once more what exactly had been done to the redhead; and even though her desire for finding Professor Collard and beating the shit out of him for how he had set them up, Pat knew that it was more important to get Willow home first, telling just that to Buffy and making the blonde nod in reply.

"I suppose Xander took off when he realized we were taking too long", she then commented, "so we'll have to walk, I don't think we'll be able to stop a taxi and calling him and waiting for him would take too long…"

"Yeah", Pat agreed, "and we better hurry. I'm sure she'll feel better once we're in the safety of our home…"

Even though Buffy doubted this, she nodded, knowing that her agreement was what the demon needed; and then, without wasting any more time, she got moving again, the taller woman right behind her, none of them feeling the need to talk as they hurried through the woods and back to Sunnydale, Buffy only speaking up again once they had reached the point where their ways would split.

"I'll tell the others what happened", the Slayer let the demon know, "you just take Willow home and make sure she's okay…"

"Will do", Pat gave back, earning a slight smile and a nod from the blonde – before she stepped closer to the two and placed a calming hand on the redhead's shoulder, telling her in a quiet voice that everything would be okay, no matter what had happened.

"Buffy's right", the demon murmured to her partner as she got moving again, Buffy heading off the other way, back to her home, "it'll be okay… No matter what they did to you, we'll get through this, okay? I'll do anything you'll need me to do…"

To her dismay, Willow didn't react at all to her words, but just kept holding on to her, so tight that it almost hurt; giving her best to not let her fears and worry show, the black haired woman kept on moving, walking as fast as she could, glad that it was night and that thus, no one was on the street – after all, she would have had had a hard time explaining why she was carrying around a clearly traumatized woman who had been wrapped up in a white lab coat.

Tightening her hold on the witch slightly, she sped up her steps a bit, eager to get her home as fast as possible; to her relief, she didn't run into anyone for the rest of the way, finding herself faced with another problem though once she had reached the apartment building.

"Willow", she mumbled to the witch after pondering if there was another way to solve this for half a minute, "I'll have to put you down for a second so I can get out the key. Just for a second, okay?"

For a few moments, she thought that again, Willow hadn't even heard her; then, the redhead nodded hesitatingly, the demon giving her a calming smile as she lowered her to the ground, the witch still holding on to her while she dug out the key and unlocked the building's front door.

"Can you walk?" she then asked, holding it open with one hand so it wouldn't fall close again, "I can carry you upstairs if you can't, it's no problem…"

"It's okay", the witch murmured in reply, still holding on to her other arm though, clearly not willing to let the contact break up, "just… stay close to me?"

"Of course", Pat reassured her at once, putting one arm around her waist as they entered the building together; clutching the lab coat so it wouldn't fall off and expose her, Willow moved along next to her, over to the elevator, stepping into her partner's embrace again the moment they had entered the cabin and the doors had slid close behind them.

Holding her close to herself, the taller woman rubbed her back soothingly, again asking herself what exactly Trevor had done to her; she still couldn't think of anything gruesome enough the tank might have been used for to put the witch into such a terrified state, but it was obvious that Willow was scared out of her mind, trembling in her embrace again now while the elevator carried them upwards.

"Almost there", she said, more to break the silence than to really point out that rather obvious fact, "then you can lie down and get some rest, you'll feel better after you got some sleep…"

The only response she got was that Willow nodded slightly, still refusing to let go of her; once the elevator had made it to the second floor and the doors slid open, she moved out of her embrace again, but still made sure to stay close to her partner, the demon keeping one arm around her as they made their way down the hallway together.

"Come on", she murmured as they had entered the apartment and she hurriedly had taken off her shoes and jacket, leading the redhead towards the bedroom, "get some sleep, I'll be right be there, nothing will happen to you, alright?"

Even though she wasn't sure if her reassurances had an effect, she kept repeating them as she helped the witch to remove the lab coat and with putting on her pyjama, then led her over to the bed; and once Willow had laid down, she did the same next to her, pulling her into a tender embrace and holding her close, caressing her hair tenderly and mumbling soothing words to her until her breath slowed down, showing that she had fallen asleep.

* * *

 _This time, she knew exactly what the soft dripping sounds were as she snuck down the dark hallway, towards the door behind which the family of immortals was holding her partner prisoner; this, she knew as well, even though of course she hadn't known the first time she had been walking there, just having escaped from a cell, an unwitting pawn in the game of the family._

 _Still it was different from how she remembered, no soft groans coming from behind the door as she opened it this time; and seconds later, she saw why, her lover hanging dead in her chains, killed by a torture session which had gone too far, and before she even fully had registered this fact, she was screaming, screaming and crying, just wanting it all to stop…_

She woke up in the demon's embrace, the taller woman holding her close and mumbling soothing words to her, caressing her hair; trembling all over, Willow clung to her, a shaky breath escaping her, tears drying on her cheeks making her realize that she had been crying in her sleep.

"It won't stop", she whimpered before Pat had a chance to say something, clinging to her even tighter and burying her face in the demon's shoulder, "I thought it'd stop now, but it won't stop…"

"What won't stop?" Pat asked in a low voice, moving her hand from her hair to her back, caressing her tenderly, not even stopping when she felt the sweat which had soaked through the pyjama top; in response, Willow let out another shaky breath, her voice barely audible when she replied. "The… I don't know, it'd be wrong to call them visions… images… things… going wrong during all the things we've faced…"

"But they're not real", the demon reassured her at once, moving her hand back to her hair again, "you know they're not, we've won each and every single time, and we've all always made it."

"I know", Willow whispered, snuggling closer to her again and resting her head on her shoulder, "but when I see it, it seems so real…"

"We'll figure out what he did", Pat promised her in reply, interrupting herself to kiss the top of her head tenderly before she went on, "and undo it, if it doesn't stop on its own. You'll be okay…"

In response, the witch just nodded, even though she wasn't as sure about this as the demon was; then, she just laid there in silence, focusing on her lover's arms around her and her fingers tenderly moving through her hair, until, finally, she drifted off into an uneasy sleep again, getting through the rest of the night without any more nightmares tormenting her and interrupting the rest she needed so much.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Note: I'm off to London for the next few days! :D Next chapter will be put up once I return. :)

* * *

In the next morning, Pat was gone when she woke up, and briefly, Willow was terrified again; then, she heard noise coming from the kitchen and closed her eyes momentarily as she told herself not to be so stupid, that she was out of there and that sooner or later, surely the images would stop flooding her and she'd be okay again, just as her partner had said.

Eager to see her, just to make sure that she was okay, Willow got out of bed, briefly feeling dizzy, her stomach turning, something she blamed on what she had been through; stopping next to the bed, she took in a few deep breaths, then moved to the kitchen once she was sure she wouldn't be sick or even faint, finding her partner there, standing at the stove and making something which looked like waffles while a cup with a teabag-string dangling down the side was sitting on the kitchen table.

"Hey", the taller woman greeted her, smiling at her, "you got up just in time. Breakfast's almost done. I made you some tea, I figured coffee wouldn't be good, in case that… stuff is still in your system…"

"Thanks", Willow gave back, smiling weakly while she sat down at the kitchen table, "and I suppose you're right…"

Nodding, Pat briefly left the waffles alone, risking that they burned, and moved over to where the redhead was sitting; bending down, she kissed her tenderly, simultaneously placing one hand on her shoulder, as if to reassure her that she was real and fine and that none of the things Willow had seen in the tank had been true.

"After you ate something, we should call Buffy", she suggested after the kiss, moving back to the stove and turning the waffle just in time to keep it from getting burned, "and have the gang assemble at the Magic Box so we can hit the books and find out what to do about… what they did to you."

"I'm not sure they will be able to help", Willow sighed in response, removing the teabag from the cup before she brought it up to her mouth, taking a careful sip of the still rather hot liquid, "if what Trevor used was some sort of drug, there might be some magic to help getting rid of it, but… I'm not sure it'll be easy."

"It never is", Pat pointed out with a sigh, deciding that the waffle had been frying long enough and moving it to a plate, where several others already laid, "or else our lives would be too easy or something. And it's worth a try…"

"It is", the witch agreed, smiling weakly at her partner; smiling back at her, the demon moved to her side, crouching next to her chair and grasping her hand, momentarily looking almost like she was about to propose, "and until we figure something out, no matter what you see, always tell yourself it's not real, alright? I'm alive and well, Buffy's alive and well, and so is the rest of us."

"I know", the redhead reassured her, "but the moment it happens, it seems so real… It's really hard to describe, I…"

She just had a second to realize that it was happening again, a cold shiver which ran down her spine being the only warning she got; before she even could try to tell Pat what was happening, the kitchen around her was gone within the blink of an eye, and she was in their living room, standing there in helpless horror as she watched how the dark, evil version of herself had her partner pinned to the wall with magic, smiling cruelly at her as she advanced.

"Don't worry", dark Willow was telling the helpless demon, moving closer to her, "I'm not going to take much. Just enough to make sure I can stay for a bit longer."

"No!" Willow cried as her darker version moved to the pinned black haired woman, placing one hand on her chest; and then, she started taking her magical essence from her, smiling widely just a few seconds later, her voice trembling just enough to let it be audible when she spoke up again. "Whoa, you taste so good… no wonder this pesky good part of me likes you so much…"

Her eyes rolled back into her head and she moaned, an almost sensual sound; and again, Willow's cry went unheard as the demon's hair started to turn grey, then white, her magic soon gone, the dark witch now taking the essence of her very life, and not too long after the last strand had gone white, Pat fell down to the floor and remained there motionless, and even though she couldn't touch her, couldn't even move, Willow knew, just knew deep inside, that she was dead…

"Willow!" Pat's voice, sharp and urgent, snapped her out of it again, making her flinch; she had a moment to realize that she had fallen out of her seat and now was lying in the demon's arms, the taller woman holding her close to herself, concern all over her face as she looked down on her.

"It happened again", the witch whispered, to her alarm feeling something wet and vaguely foamy on her lips and chin as she spoke, "Pat, I'm scared, it just keeps happening…"

"We'll figure something out", the demon told her in response, even though she didn't sound as confident about it as she had a few minutes ago, "there has to be something Giles can do, and if he can't, we'll find someone who can. I promise."

She felt Willow shiver in her arms again, something she for a second blamed on the fear the witch still was feeling; and then, the witch started convulsing in her arms again, just like she had just minutes ago, during the previous hallucination, and when she called out her name in alarm, the only reaction she got was that the redhead started twitching and trembling in her arms again, foam forming on her lips once more and trickling down her cheeks, no reaction at all coming from her, no matter how often Pat called out her name.

* * *

"...can't help her with this", Willow heard the demon say as she came back around, to her surprise now finding herself lying on the living room couch, her feet propped up on the armrest, a soft pillow beneath her head while Pat was pacing up and down in the living room, on the phone with, as the witch figured, either Buffy or Giles.

"No, I haven't tried", the taller woman now was saying, running one hand through her hair, the fact that currently, her blind side was to the witch keeping her from noticing she had woken up, "I don't need to. I know it doesn't help with something like this."

"…Pat", Willow croaked, finally finding enough strength to talk; and even though her voice had been barely above a whisper, the demon heard her, almost dropping the phone as she hurried to her side, telling whoever was on the other end of the line that Willow was awake and that she'd call back before she simply hung up, without even waiting for an answer.

"Hey", she said, her voice so tender that it made the witch's heart clench up, "how are you feeling?"

"Tired", the redhead murmured in reply, another weak smile curling her lips when the taller woman began to caress her hair tenderly, prompting her to lean into the touch until Pat's hand was cupping her cheek, "what happened? Did I pass out?"

"Yes", the demon confirmed, now sounding not only tender, but concerned, "after you had some kind of… seizure, I guess. It looked really scary."

"My head hurts", Willow mumbled as an answer, briefly closing her eyes again and thus missing the concerned glance the black haired woman was giving her, "and… my stomach feels all… oh Goddess I think I gotta throw up…"

To her relief, Pat reacted fast to those unpleasant news, and without missing a beat; the second she had uttered the last word, the taller woman had picked her up on her arms and was rushing to her to the bathroom, lowering her to the ground in front of the toilet just in time, holding her hair back when she vomited seconds later, her whole body trembling and sweat quickly forming on her skin, making the pyjama top she still was wearing stick to her back.

"There, there", she heard the taller woman murmur, the words which almost always came from her when she didn't know what to say, "it's alright, maybe this'll help, let it all out…"

In response, Willow threw up again, even though she had been sure that there had been nothing left in her stomach for that; gripping the toilet seat so tightly that her knuckles stood out, she dry-heaved when finally, her stomach had been fully emptied, slumping down moments later and breathing heavily, closing her eyes as she felt Pat pull her into a tender embrace.

"Goddess", she brought out, her voice trembling along with her body, "what did they put in my system? I feel as if I drank for days and this is the world's worst hangover…"

"Not to mention the hallucinations", Pat added, moving to caress her hair yet again in an attempt to help her calm down, "and, well… I know it might be too early to ask that, but… if you want to talk about it…"

"Not right now", Willow gave back, not really surprising the taller woman, "let me… get clean first, and maybe have some tea…"

"Whatever you want", the black haired woman reassured her in reply, carefully helping her to her feet, then staying close to her as she washed out her mouth and brushed her teeth, just to be on the safe side, talking on while the redhead performed those tasks, "I suppose the tea is cold by now, but I can heat it up if you want me to, or make you fresh one…"

"Heating it up will be enough", Willow mumbled after she had finished brushing her teeth, making her way back to the kitchen with her partner and sitting down there again; smiling at her, Pat nodded, then made her smile slightly as well by pouring a cup of tea – and then holding said cup and letting the hand which held it flame up, the liquid steaming visibly not even a minute later.

"Thanks", she mumbled as she accepted the now pleasantly warm cup from her lover, then took a careful sip of it, "one of the perks of dating a fire demon, huh?"

"Yup", Pat agreed with a smirk, earning another weak smile from her lover; for a few more seconds, there was silence as Willow drank a bit more of the tea, then finally spoke up, her voice low and surprisingly calm as she recollected what Trevor had done to her, at least at first.

"He told me he needed my magic", she let the demon know, carefully placing the cup back on the table, her index finger tracing the rim afterwards without her even fully noticing, "to make his soldiers invulnerable. The super guys Buffy and you fought, not the regular ones who were on guard…"

Nodding, Pat leaned forward slightly to grasp her free hand, a silent sign of support and of her presence; with a brief grateful look, Willow smiled at her, then focused on the tea again as she continued, with just the tiniest tremble in her voice now.

"I told him no, and he said I'd… spare myself some discomfort if I changed my mind", she told the taller woman, hearing her growl lowly in response, a deep rumble from the back of her throat, but not looking up at her, "so I asked him if they'd torture me. And he said no again, telling me they weren't savages… And then he told them, the soldier guys, the normal ones, to put me in that tank, only he called it sensory deprivation, and that they should mix in a batch of something, I can't remember what it was and that I'd do all the torturing myself…"

She realized that she had started to babble and that she was close to hyperventilating, but couldn't stop herself; and then, just before she could start breathing so fast that it might make her faint, Pat had wrapped both arms around her and was holding her, rubbing her back as she mumbled soothing words into her ear.

"It's okay", she heard the black haired woman say over and over, "you're out of there, and he can't harm you anymore…"

"It wasn't so bad at first", Willow brought out in reply, another tremble running through her, prompting the demon to tighten her embrace around her, "it was… peaceful, and I was asking myself what was supposed to happen to change my mind about helping him… but then the bad stuff started, and it just wouldn't stop…"

"We'll find out how to make it stop", Pat promised her in reply, still rubbing her back soothingly, "I talked to Buffy while you were out cold, and I suppose she's on the phone with Giles right now. There will be something we can do…"

"I hope so", Willow sighed in response, and just then, the phone rang; still Pat took the time to give her another calming smile and tenderly rub her back, kissing her briefly before she got up and went to get the call, mouthing "it's Buffy" to the witch seconds later."

"…yeah, sure", the demon then said after just listening for half a minute, "you can come here any time, you know that… Yeah, I suppose so… Alright…"

Frowning, she hung up the phone and looked at it for a moment, then put it back down on the table, her gaze moving on to Willow, a hint of irritation in her voice as she spoke up again. "Okay, that was weird. Buffy said she'd come over, and she told me to be sure that I'm calm when she arrives. And that she'll maybe know how to help you, which is great, but why would she tell me that I should be calm?"

"No idea", Willow gave back, getting up from her seat so she could move into the taller woman's arms, smiling weakly again when immediately, Pat wrapped both arms around her, pulling her close, "but I'm sure she'll explain…"

"Yeah", the demon agreed after a moment, then just kept holding her, her mind racing as she tried to figure out what was going on; and while she was occupied with this, Willow merely leaned against her, closing her eyes and breathing in her scent, telling herself that surely, the taller woman was right and that soon, everything would be alright again.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note: I'm back! It's kinda late-ish here, but since I don't want to sleep yet, I figured I might as well update ;) enjoy!

* * *

"Are you calm?" Buffy asked instead of a greeting half an hour later, making Pat frown at her while Willow raised an eyebrow; then, the demon shrugged and nodded, taking a step back afterwards so the Slayer could enter the apartment, the blonde, to her surprise, remaining outside on the hallway though.

"I really need you to be calm", she repeated instead, the black haired woman's frown deepening in reply, concern now added to the mix as she finally asked why the Slayer was so keen on her being calm.

"Well…" Buffy gave back, now even fidgeting nervously, "I… kinda brought someone along." And with those words, she nodded at someone to her right; with a polite clearing of his throat, Professor Collard stepped into view next to her, and before Willow even knew what was happening, Pat had let out a shockingly loud growl and had moved up to him, grasping his collar with both hands and lifting him off his feet as she forced him backwards, slamming him against the opposite wall hard enough to knock the breath out of him and his glasses off his face.

"Pat, no!" Buffy snapped, moving to stop her before she could do some serious damage to the elder man, who was scared stiff by this outburst, "let go of him!"

"He's the one who set us up!" Pat snarled at her, not even looking at her, her glowing red gaze focused on Collard, making him swallow heavily, "and you bring him here?! Are you out of your fucking mind?"

"Let me explain", Buffy gave back, still trying to make her let go of him, with no success though, "he didn't set us up, not the way you think…"

"I had no choice", Collard brought out in response, sounding slightly strained since the demon's grip on him was making it hard for him to breathe, "please, I can explain, and I can help you, Doctor…"

He coughed before he could finish, and for a moment, none of them knew who he was talking to – before Willow realized that he meant her, frowning slightly as well now while she stepped closer to her partner, giving the professor a hard look.

"Explain", she then said, crossing her arms over her chest; momentarily, Buffy looked as if she wanted to protest, to tell the demon that she should put him down once more, then she took one look at Willow's face and remained quiet, merely shrugging when Collard threw her a helpless look.

"Not much I can do when they're both like that", she then told him, making him gulp audibly; then, another growl came from Pat, along with a little shake of the man, and he hurriedly spoke on, a hint of panic in his voice now.

"Please, you have to believe me, I had no choice", he told them, his gaze darting back and forth between the witch and the demon, "Trevor, he made me, he forced me, he said he'd harm my daughter if I didn't help him get you, that he'd do to her what he did to you…"

"So you know what he did to me", Willow stated, not really asking him, but making him nod anyway, "do you know how to stop it?"

"It should have stopped the moment you were out of the tank", Collard gave back, "but I can try to help you, yes… Just…Please, put me down?"

In response, Pat let out another growl, then unceremoniously dropped him; he stumbled and nearly fell, Buffy preventing this in the last second by grabbing him, both the witch and the demon unimpressed by the glare she sent their way.

"Can we please go inside?" she then asked, her gaze focusing on Pat now, the taller woman looking rather unhappy about the thought of letting this man into their home, "I promise he's on our side, he explained it all to me before we came here."

"How do we know he's not lying again", the black haired woman demanded to know in response, crossing her arms over her chest, "the last time we listened to him, we ended up in cells and they did the Goddess knows what to Willow!"

"You don't have much of a choice", Collard replied, straightening his clothes and bravely looking at her, the effect ruined a bit by the fact that he was smaller than her, "because if A-23 is—"

"Pat", Willow brought out behind the taller woman, interrupting her, the tremble in her voice being enough to alarm the demon; she turned to look at the witch, and moments later shot forward as the redhead was collapsing, catching her just in time before she hit the ground, yet another seizure making her shake and tremble in her partner's arms moments later.

"Oh my God!" Buffy cried out, shocked, moving closer as well, her eyes growing wide when foam started to form on her best friend's lips, "what's happening to her?!"

"The drug", Collard gave back, to his credit looking upset as well, his gaze then moving up and meeting Pat's, not even her suspicions about him letting her deny that he looked sincere, "the A-23… This is why you need me. If this isn't removed from her system, it'll only get worse… until it will kill her."

* * *

"To my shame, I have to admit that I had a part in developing this certain drug", Collard told them ten minutes later, inside the apartment now, unable to take his gaze off the unconscious witch lying on the living room couch, Pat crouching next to her and holding her hand, looking at her in concern, as well, "the A stands for anxiety, and the 23…Well, it's the number of tries they needed until they got it right."

"What does it do?" Buffy demanded to know, finally making him look at her, a heavy sigh escaping him before he replied.

"It… uses the memories of the sub—the person", he explained, correcting himself in the last second, something which was helped along by the glare Pat levelled his way, "and makes them much, much worse. Things which went well go wrong, people are hurt, maybe even die… Of course it depends on the person, on their memories, but it can get pretty extreme."

"So with the memories of all our… adventures, it must have been Hell for her", Pat mumbled, now focusing on her partner again, reaching out with her free hand and tenderly moving a strand of sweaty hair out of the still unconscious woman's face, "and who knows how long she's been in this tank…"

"During test runs, it served to break the victim's will remarkably fast", Collard thoughtlessly told her, only to cower when she glared at him again, her good eye flashing up red for the brightest moment, making him remember how he had seen the same glow in it out on the hallway and prompting him to ask himself if perhaps, he hadn't imagined it; before he could inquire further though, the red was gone, and the taller woman was looking at her partner again, her voice dangerously calm when she asked him what they could do to help her.

"I have a lab, in the cellar of my home", he started to explain in reply, "and I got the antidote there, we could take her there and—"

"No", Pat interrupted him, in a flat and cold voice, making Buffy look at her in shock, "we may have to believe you about all this drug stuff, but I will not put her into your hands like this. No way."

"You don't have a choice", Collard gave back, for the first time since this talk had started to sounding meek or scared, but quite confident, sure of himself and of what he was saying, "the treatment will not be easy. She'll have to be monitored, and I can't just give her a syringe full of antidote and hope it will work. If the drug is still in her system after all these hours, I must know how much, and administer the correct dosage of the counter-drug, and make sure her vitals remain stable as I do so. I can't do this here."

"We have to trust him on this", Buffy threw in before the demon had a chance to reply something, "if he's right about what this… drug is doing to Willow, we can't risk not letting him help her… You've seen what happened to her out in the hallway, if this get worse…"

"It will", Collard told them, glancing at the unconscious form of the redhead again, "it will get much, much worse. It might get so bad that she won't be able to differ between reality and what the drug makes her see anymore… if the physical symptoms don't get out of hand first. There's no way for me to tell, as I said, it should have stopped the moment she was removed from the tank. Miss Summers is right, you have to trust me on this, unless you want to risk her life."

"I don't", Pat told him in a rough voice, "but surely you'll understand that I find it hard to trust you, after what you did."

"Yes", Collard let her know without missing a beat, "and if it helps, you are more than welcome to stay with her for as long as it's necessary to get A-23 out of her system. The lab is not comfortable, but I'll do everything to provide you with anything you might need."

"…I still don't like this", the taller woman grumbled after pondering this for a moment, finding her cigarettes and lighting one of them up, ignoring the disapproving look the professor shot her, "but, as you said yourself, I can't risk her health getting even worse, mental or physical…"

"Are you sure the healing won't help?" Buffy wanted to know in response, prompting Collard to look at her in confusion now, "did you ever try it with something like that before?"

"Yes", Pat sighed in response, "it wasn't a drug, exactly, more like… a poison. It didn't work. It helped with the physical symptoms, for an hour or so, then it all started over and I had to go find the antidote after all."

"Maybe we should try after all", Buffy suggested, giving her best friend another worried look, the fact that Willow still was unconscious concerning her, "it might work for that stuff… But it'd mess up your leg again, right?"

"I don't give a flying fuck about my leg", Pat shot back, making Collard wince with her rather dirty language, "and you're right, it's worth a try… Just let me get the stuff."

"You might want to wait outside", Buffy told Collard while the demon walked off to find the powder she still needed to use for the healing spell, unlike Willow, who was skilled enough by now to perform it without the aid of ingredients, "what we're about to do might be… upsetting for someone like you."

"I know Doctor Rosenberg is a witch", the professor replied rather bluntly, prompting Buffy to raise an eyebrow at him while, standing at the shelf on which the small wooden box Willow used for ingredients was sitting, Pat turned around to look at him in surprise as well, "and that the two of you are some sort of… Well, more than human, as well. I know why my wretched son wanted the doctor's help."

"Well, that makes things easier", Buffy finally was the first one to speak up again, "but I'm not sure if I'm more than human. I'm the Slayer. And Pat's a demon."

"On any other day, I would have called both of you insane", the professor let her know, sounding surprisingly amiable now, "but after living in this town for so long, I'll just take this in stride. Even though I have no idea what a slayer is."

"I'll explain later", Buffy told him, since Pat had found the powder and was moving back to the couch, "just be quiet now, alright? This demands a lot of concentration."

Nodding, Collard leaned forward, curiously watching how the demon poured some of the powder onto her palm, then grasped Willow's hand with her other one; and then, she started mumbling under her breath, too low to let him hear the exact words, blowing the powder into the air right after the last one, a startled cry coming from the elder man when seconds later, her free hand caught fire.

"No worries", Buffy whispered, "it's not harming her, she's fireproof…"

Stunned, Collard just nodded, unable to take his eyes away; and seconds later, he flinched as an awful snapping sound came from the black haired woman's leg, a pained outcry she forced out between clenched teeth accompanying the noise, sweat forming on her brow and trickling down her cheeks, Buffy grimacing as well at the obvious pain her friend was in again.

Still, even though she clearly was in tremendous pain now, Pat kept holding on to her partner, until it became clear that any effects the spell might have had wouldn't show immediately; only then, she let go and the fire went out, another groan of pain coming from her as she slumped back and clutched her knee with both hands.

"Goddammit", she finally brought out, both the professor and Buffy looking at her in worry, "let's hope we won't have to go anywhere for the next hours. I forgot how much that guy messed up my leg…"

"You were lucky they didn't do more than that", Collard mumbled, earning a frown from the demon; before she could tell him though that they had done more than enough, Willow let out a soft groan, prompting her partner to immediately focus on her, her grip on her hand tightening slightly as she said her name.

In response, another soft groan came from the redhead, barely audible; and then, she opened her eyes and her gaze met her lover's, briefly filled with fear and confusion, then she seemed to realize where she was and that whatever she had seen while she had been out cold had been yet another lie, like all the other images she had seen ever since the drug had been injected into her system.

"There you are again", the taller woman said, distracting her from those thoughts and making her smile weakly, "we were starting to get worried."

"It happened again", Willow mumbled in reply, briefly closing her eyes as the gruesome images flashed through her mind again, "and it hurt…"

"Professor Collard here says he knows how to help you", Buffy was the one to answer that, making her glance at the blonde, "Pat tried the healing, but we're not sure yet it worked… Do you feel any different?"

"No", the witch gave back, carefully sitting up, despite her head aching quite nastily, "my head hurts, and I'm so tired…"

"I can help you", Collard reassured her, giving her a slightly nervous smile, "we were speaking of this while you were unconscious."

"Yeah", Pat confirmed, "I don't really like it, but as soon as I can walk again, we'll take you to his lab and he can help you there…"

"Oh no", Willow gave back, looking and sounding a bit more aware now as she glanced at the taller woman's leg, the knee already swelling beneath the fabric of her pants, "Sweetie, you shouldn't have done that.."

"I'll be okay", the black haired woman reassured her, squeezing her hand tenderly, "don't worry. Just a few hours and I'll be alright, and until then, you hang in there so we can get you to the professor's lab and he'll help you…"

"It's not far from here", Collard added, giving her another smile; and even though she didn't like the thought of putting herself into his hands and at his mercy, after what had happened thanks to him, Willow nodded, then laid back down and closed her eyes for a moment, hoping that at least, she'd not be plagued by any more hallucinations until her lover would be ready to head for the lab with them.


	12. Chapter 12

"I'll have to take some blood first", Collard told Willow several hours later, in the cellar of his home, where he had put up his own private lab; the witch was lying on what looked like a hospital bed, making them all wonder where he had gotten it, while Pat and Buffy had taken seats next to said bed, the demon holding her hand, caressing the back of it absent-mindedly, but tenderly with her thumb.

"Just to define how much of it is still in your system", Collard went on, distracting her with his talking from the brief pain of the needle going into the crook of her arm, "knowing this is vital for figuring out how much of the counter drug I need to administer…"

Letting out a vaguely agreeing noise, Willow watched how the vial he had readied quickly filled with her blood; and once it was close to actually spilling over, he pulled the needle back out, then pressed a small wad of cotton to the wound, telling her to hold that there while he made his way to a rather futuristic looking machine, carefully placing the vial of blood in one of the slots on it, then pushing one of the many buttons, nodding when the machine whirred to life.

"This shouldn't take too long", he then told them, turning back to look at them, "and once it has run through, I'll know exactly how much of A-23 she still has within you. Then I'll have to hook you up to the monitoring systems and begin with administering the counterdrug…"

"Alright", Willow mumbled, shifting slightly on the bed to get more comfortable; since the last incident, there hadn't been any further seizures, something she attributed to the healing her partner had performed, but she knew that she wasn't completely safe of them until the drug had been removed from her system.

"Will this counterdrug have any side effects?" Buffy wanted to know, distracting her from her ponderings, the professor shrugging in response, sounding a bit sheepish when he replied.

"I'm not sure", he admitted, "as I said, it shouldn't even be within her anymore. The effects should have stopped the moment she got out of the tank, we designed the drug to work that way…"

"Obviously you did something wrong", Pat replied, unimpressed, "so in case this does have any side effects on her, what should we be prepared for? You have to know at least a bit."

"There might be nausea", he gave back after pondering this for a moment, "headaches, maybe an onset of ague… Depending on how much I need to give her…"

"Great, just great", the demon sighed, clearly not liking the thought of Willow going through all of this; she gave the professor another hard look, still not trusting him fully about this, only to be distracted from her suspicions about the man when Willow's grip on her hand suddenly tightened, a choked sound coming from her as the drug hit yet again.

"Oh no, not again", Pat still had time to say, then the witch was going through another seizure, trembling violently despite the demon's tries to hold her down, in an attempt to keep her from falling off the bed and maybe injuring herself.

"Buffy", she snapped as the seizure became too bad to let her hold her down without risking hurting her, "help me!"

Hurriedly, the blonde moved to the other side of the bed, grasping Willow's legs in an attempt to hold them down; she almost ended up with a kick to the face for her troubles, but finally got a secure grip on the redhead, together with Pat managing to stabilize her enough so she wasn't in any danger of falling anymore.

With more of the horrible choking sounds, the redhead kept trembling in the grip the two had on her; and once again, foam started to form on her lips, then running down her cheeks and chin, this time to the shock of both Pat and Buffy mixed with blood, both of them realizing a bit belatedly that she had bitten her tongue.

"Make it stop!" Pat snapped at the professor, who helplessly told her that there was nothing he could do, not at the moment; and seconds later, he figured it was a good thing that she was needing both hands and most of her weight to hold the redhead down, since she looked at him as if she wanted to tear him apart with her bare hands.

Then, the seizure stopped, and immediately, the taller woman was focused on her partner again; for a few more moments, Willow kept shivering in her arms – before she clung to her and started to cry, sobbing so violently that the demon and the Slayer could barely understand her when she tried to say something.

"I can't take this anymore", she finally brought out clearly enough to be understood, prompting Pat to wrap both arms around her in a helpless try to calm her down, "it gets worse and worse, I can't handle this anymore…"

"You'll be fine", the taller woman replied, rubbing her back soothingly, not sure what else she could say, "the professor is almost done, then he'll know how to help you…"

In response, Willow just kept clinging to her, sobbing quietly into her shoulder; not sure what else to say, the black haired woman just kept holding her and rubbing her back, exchanging a worried look with Buffy as they both wondered how much longer the redhead still would have to endure this.

* * *

"The amount of A-23 in your system still is quite high", Collard told her fifteen minutes later, giving her a concerned look, "which is… quite disconcerting, as there should be barely any left, if any at all. Now, I'll connect you to the monitoring system, as I'll need to keep an eye on your vital signs while the counterdrug is administered…"

"Alright", Willow mumbled, feeling oddly dejected; she felt how Pat gave her hand another tender squeeze and smiled weakly at her, then held still as Collard wheeled a machine closer to bed, putting the pads which were connected to it with various coloured cables on her chest and her temples, the machine reacting moments later with soft beeps and her heartbeat and brainwaves showing up on the small monitors.

"Good", Collard muttered, more to himself than to any member of the group, "everything seems to be in order… I will start with the counterdrug, then."

Briefly, Willow grimaced as the needle went into the back of her hand, Collard giving her an apologetic look while he used strips of medical tape to keep it in place; then, he connected the drip of the bag filled with clear liquid he had readied, carefully turning the small valve and nodding to himself when the liquid started to drip through the thin plastic tube.

"As I said, I'm not sure about possible side effects", Collard told the small group, giving them another apologetic look, "or how long it might take for them to begin, if there are any at all."

"You do know that, if this is another one of your little tricks and you make her worse instead of better, I'll kill you, right", Pat gave back in a remarkably calm tone; Buffy shot her a scolding look, but she ignored her completely, her gaze fixed on Collard, the professor gulping in response and nodding.

"I am aware of that, thank you", he then mumbled, focusing on the monitors again; for a while, the only noise was their soft beeping, then he suddenly frowned and leaned forward, taking a closer look at one of the screens.

"This is… strange", he then commented, earning confused looks from all three women, but ignoring them, fully focused on the readouts, "there seems to be… wait…"

Bending over, he picked up another one of the pads, one of the few he hadn't connected; and then, he startled her by placing it on her stomach, once again ignoring the looks he was receiving, his frown deepening as he kept staring at the monitors.

"Um", he then finally said, glancing up and at Pat again, "you said you're… Doctor Rosenberg's life partner? Her spouse?"

"Yes", Pat gave back, Willow nodding for emphasis, while craning her neck to get a look at the monitors, thanks to the position of the machines not succeeding though, "why do you ask?"

"Um", Collard repeated the noise he had let out a minute ago, giving the demon an insecure glance, "well…"

"Spit it out", Willow mumbled, exchanging a worried look with her partner, "did you find something? Something which keeps the counterdrug from working or something?"

"Not… quite", the professor gave back, looking at the monitor again before his gaze moved back to her, "in fact, Doctor, the monitoring picked up… something. A second heartbeat. It seems that you're pregnant."


	13. Chapter 13

"What." Pat was the first one to break the stunned silence which had settled over the three women in response to those words, sounding strangely flat, "she's what?"

"Pregnant", Collard repeated, Buffy and Willow still staring in silent disbelief, "which might explain why the drug didn't leave her system, we never tested what might happen in that case… The hormonal and physical changes…"

"I can't be pregnant", Willow finally snapped out of her stupor, "I haven't… been with a guy that way for years! Since Oz!"

Not sure if an answer was expected from him, Collard just shrugged, then turned the machine so they all could see it, pointing out the second set of heartbeats on the monitors; Willow stared at them for a few moments, then turned to look at her partner, her discomfort and fear about her condition forgotten as she found herself faced with this new development.

"Pat, please, you have to believe me", she almost pleaded, her grip on the demon's hand tightening in an effort to keep her from pulling away, "I didn't… I don't know how this happened!"

"Well, it surely didn't happen with the two of us, did it", the taller woman gave back in a flat voice, now, to Willow's distress, pulling her hand back after all so she could cross her arms over her chest, "cause that's quite impossible."

"I didn't cheat on you!" Willow now denied out loud what she hadn't even openly been accused of yet, "I swear! You know I'd never…"

"That's not quite true, is it", Pat mumbled in response, making Buffy wince while all the witch could do was swallow heavily, having remembered that one incident just after she had fallen quiet; and even though back then, it hadn't been her fault, but had been caused by the magic the witch Mel had been working on her, she didn't point this out, merely looking at her lover helplessly, not sure what she could say to convince her.

"That wasn't her fault, and you know that", Buffy was the one to finally say it, while Collard just looked on in confusion, clearly having no idea what they were talking about, almost appearing relieved when the blonde's gaze focused on him.

"Are you sure she's pregnant?" Buffy demanded to know, "cause, let me tell you, we've had a situation before where anyone would have thought she was, and then, it was a parasite."

"I don't even want to know", the professor mumbled in response, frowning slightly again, "but, well, I could do an ultrasound… If there's a heartbeat already, it should be visible on the screen."

"Do it", Pat told him in a rough voice, making him nod before he hurriedly went to get the equipment; with her arms still crossed over her chest, the demon watched him do so, the way she avoided looking at the witch making the smaller woman's heart clench up.

"I swear I didn't cheat on you", she repeated, in a low voice, "I don't know how this happened…"

The only acknowledgement she got was a low grunt the taller woman let out in response, the witch suddenly feeling close to tears; biting them back, she focused on Collard as well, watching how he wheeled yet another machine close to her bed, then found a small tube in the chaos that was one of the desks at the lab, warning her that this might be cold before he applied the transparent gel it contained to her stomach.

Cold, she learned the very second the stuff touched her skin, was an understatement; it felt as if he was rubbing an icicle onto her stomach, and she suddenly longed for the warmth of her partner's touch, but didn't dare to reach out to her, knowing it'd break her heart if she'd end up rejected, something she never would have dreamed might happen not even ten minutes ago.

"Alright", Collard muttered as soon as he had spread enough of the gel, "hold still now please…"

He flicked a few switched and turned a few knobs, then picked up the ultrasound device; he gave Willow another look before he carefully moved it onto her stomach, all eyes in the room fixing on the monitor as they waited for an image to form.

It didn't took long until exactly that happened, a strangled noise coming from Willow while Pat sat there as stiff as a statue, not moving a muscle as she stared at the image; even though it wasn't fully developed yet, it was obvious that it was a baby and not the kind of parasite the redhead had had within her before, years ago.

"Well", Collard muttered, giving the demon a nervous look, having noticed her devotion to the redhead and not wanting to imagine what this was doing to her now, "this looks… pretty clear… I'm not an expert, but I'd say you're in your sixth or seventh week…"

"This is impossible", Willow whispered, asking herself if maybe, she still was comatose from the last seizure and this was the drug wreaking havoc with her mind again, "I didn't… I haven't slept with a guy since Oz! That was my Freshman year at college! Pat, please, you have to believe me!"

"Then how did it happen?" Pat asked in reply, still in that strangely flat voice, "did someone…" She fell silent, not even able to say the only possibility for the so far unknown pregnancy out loud; and when Willow shook her head in response, knowing what the demon was talking about, the hard look vanished from her face and she just looked crestfallen, the sight pushing the witch over the edge, hot tears running down her face moments later.

"Please", she brought out in a tiny, trembling voice, Collard looking on uncomfortable while Buffy just looked concerned, "I didn't… I don't know how this happened…"

"I need a smoke", the demon gave back in reply, her voice even hoarser than usual now, making Buffy wonder if she was close to tears as well; and before anyone could say anything about that idea, she had gotten up from her seat and had rushed out of the lab, the uncomfortable silence which filled the room after the door had slammed shut behind her broken by the soft sobs Willow let out every now and then, her mind reeling as she asked herself how this had happened and how she could explain this to the woman she loved with all her heart.

* * *

For the next hour, Collard kept administering the counterdrug, carefully measuring the dosage and keeping an eye on the redhead's vitals; she didn't even notice his efforts though, too upset with what had happened and the fact that so far, Pat hadn't returned from her cigarette break, and had been reported gone by Buffy when the blonde had gone looking for her half an hour ago.

"She's probably taking a walk", her best friend tried to reassure her, rubbing her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her, "you have to understand that this must have upset her quite a bit…"

"Of course I understand", Willow gave back, by now having stopped crying, mostly due to the fact that she simply had no more tears left to cry than because she was feeling better, "but I swear I didn't cheat on her… I'd never do this to her willingly!"

"I believe you", Buffy reassured her at once, both of them ignoring Collard by now, something the elder man seemed rather grateful about though, clearly happy to be left out of the drama, "and I'm sure she will, too, after she got some time to cool down… You know her temper, she'll just need to clear her head a bit and then she'll come back and we can figure out how this happened. Maybe a spell or something…"

"Yes", the witch gave back at once, the thought of someone impregnating her with a spell and the reasons she could come up with for this making her skin crawl, "you're right… "

"It'll be okay", Buffy told her, still rubbing her arm soothingly, "she'll come back, and we'll figure something out, and decide how to deal with this…"

Even though she wasn't as confident about this as she wanted to be, Willow nodded, swallowing heavily again as she once more felt close to tears; she took a minute to compose herself, then spoke up again, glancing at the door as she did so, as she was expecting her mere words to make the demon appear.

"I just don't want to lose her", she told Buffy in a quiet voice, with just enough of a tremble in her voice to let the blonde notice, "what if she doesn't believe me, I couldn't take it if she left me, I love her so much…"

"I know", Buffy gave back, grasping her hand now and holding tenderly, but knowing she could never give the touch she really craved, the tender caress of her lover, "and she knows, too, and she loves you, too… I mean, she gave up her immortality for you, so this won't come between the two of you now!"

"Oh God", Willow brought out in reply, her eyes going wide, and making Buffy realize too late that this hadn't been the best thing to say, "she gave up her immortality to save and me now she thinks I cheated on her! She must feel so betrayed…"

"She'll see that you didn't once she had some time to think about it", the Slayer hurriedly reassured her, squeezing her hand as if to underline her words, "trust me! She's hot headed, being a fire demon and all, but she'll realize soon enough that just running off like that was rash and then she'll be back!"

"I hope so", Willow mumbled, then flinched as sharp pain flashed through her head, something she had experienced a few times before, Collard having explained that it came from the counterdrug and was no reason for worry, a groan still escaping her at the tremendous pain, relief briefly flooding her as the pain vanished again as fast as it had started.

"How much longer?" she then demanded to know, glaring at the professor impatiently, "it should be done soon, right?"

"Yes", Collard reassured her, briefly glancing up from the machines and at her, "another ten minutes, at the most, now that I know that your… condition is to blame for the drug not leaving your system right away, removing it was easier than I initially had thought it would be."

"Great", Willow mumbled, forcing herself not to think of what the drug might have done to the new life within her, telling herself that it hadn't been put there by natural means and that it probably was something evil they would have to deal with as soon as this current mess had been resolved, reminding herself of the fact that she shouldn't start bonding with it just because it was within her.

 _That alien parasite demon thing was within you, too,_ she reminded herself of that unpleasant time, _and it was evil, and as long as you don't know how this got inside you…_

Momentarily, her mind wanted to drift off again, begin listing all the unpleasant possibilities; before it could take her to scary mental territory though, her phone vibrated in her pocket, startling her out of her reverie, the unexpected sound making Buffy and Collard flinch in surprise, as well, the Slayer giving her a curious look as well while she hurriedly pulled out the phone.

"It's Pat", she then told the blonde, her relief so big that it almost overwhelmed her, "thank goodness…"

Quickly, before it could go to voicemail, she took the call, smiling as she held the phone to her, already expecting her lover's deep and hoarse voice; and seconds later, the smile was gone, her eyes widening as she heard Trevor chuckle in response to her rather enthusiastic greeting.

"Why, Doctor Rosenberg", he then said, in a teasing tone which made her grip on the phone tighten until part of her feared it might break, the alarmed look Buffy was giving her ignored, "I didn't know I meant so much to you. You must have enjoyed your time here more than I thought."

"What do you want", Willow gave back, her now cold tone only being another sign for Buffy that something was wrong, but still the witch wouldn't look at her; in response, Trevor chuckled again, then answered her question, none of his words really surprising her.

"You, of course", he told her, eerily reminding her of the time Warren had been back from the dead and had done exactly the same, kidnapping her partner and then using her phone to call her and tell her what he wanted, "I assume by now, my wretched father helped you about the drug, so you should be fit enough to come back to my lab. You come here alone, you do what I want you to, and I'll let both your girlfriend and you go. In case you refuse, well… let me put it this way, you're not really in a position to. Unless you want your lover back in pieces."

"Don't you dare touch her", Willow pressed out between grit teeth, feeling how anger surged through her when Trevor just laughed again in reply; and then, the line went dead, and when she frantically called back, still ignoring Buffy's tries to gain her attention, the phone was switched off, sending her heart rate and the anger within her through the roof.

"Willow", Buffy finally got through to her, thanks to the new tone in her voice, the alarm gone, replaced by dull disbelief, "you should… um…"

"What?" Willow almost snapped, then noticed the thin tendrils of smoke which were rising towards the ceiling, and the look of pure shock on Collard's face; and suddenly, she felt cold as she glanced down on her free hand, which was clenched into a tight fist in her lap, the smoke still rising from her fingers and the back of her hand, only stopping once her shock grew too big and the anger vanished.


	14. Chapter 14

"Alright, channelling your girlfriend with the smoke and being pissed off, that was bad enough", Buffy almost ranted at her as she hurried along behind her, "but playing right into his hands like that?! This is suicide!"

"He needs something from me", Willow argued back, not even slowing down; Collard had been reluctant to let her go, claiming that the cleansing process wasn't fully done yet, but when she had glared at him and he had seen a brief flash of glowing red in her eyes, he had given in remarkably fast, the Slayer not willing to do the same so easily though.

"As long as he does, he won't kill me", the witch went on, snatching up her jacket on the way out of the professor's house, "but he'll do God knows what to Pat if I refuse. You think I'll let him harm her?"

"You'll let him kill you", Buffy still tried reason in reply, "come on, let me come along! If you go there alone, you'll be completely at his mercy!"

"No, I won't", Willow gave back, making Buffy frown, "because if he wants me to make his goons invulnerable, so he'll have to allow me to use my magic. If he even really did find a way to block if and wasn't just bluffing. And once he does, well… You know how powerful I am."

"I know", Buffy had to admit, "but I also know that you might go dark again. What if he knows about that, and it's just what he wants? What if he… did something to Pat to make you go dark the moment you see it?"

"Then he won't kill me, either", the witch replied flatly, sounding strangely like Pat had when they had been told about the pregnancy, "because I'll kill him."

"Willow, please", Buffy still refused to give up, still trying to reason with the redhead, "you're doing just what he wants you to do… Please, just think about this a minute and—"

Twirling around so fast that it almost made the Slayer flinch back, Willow stopped to glare at her, with such intensity that briefly, the blonde feared her best friend might go dark then and there; and when the witch spoke up again, there was a distinct rumble in her voice, something she didn't even seem to notice though, eerily unaware of how much like her girlfriend she sounded in this very moment.

"I don't have a minute", she almost snarled, now making Buffy take a step back from her after all, "he's got my girlfriend, and right now, he might be doing the Goddess knows what to her. So I'll go there and I'll take him down."

"Okay, this sudden burst of confidence aside", the Slayer gave back after sorting her thoughts for a moment, "then at least let me come with you. You can do that spell to keep them from hearing me! Then they won't even know I'm there!"

"…fine", Willow mumbled after another long second, the growl, to Buffy's relief, now gone from her voice, "you won't give in anyway until I do this, so I might as well agree."

"Exactly", Buffy told her, smiling brightly at her; to her dismay, the redhead just gave her another dark look in reply, then turned and kept walking, forcing the blonde so hurry so she'd catch up with her.

"Our priority is getting her out, right", she said once she had gotten to the witch's side, giving her another smile, hoping she'd be able to calm her down a bit, "we can take care of Trevor and his soldiers later…"

"If they get in my way, I'll take care of them", Willow darkly gave back, missing how the blonde gulped at her words; she gave her a worried look, then fell silent, not sure what else she could say, merely hurrying along next to the witch for a while, giving her more concerned looks every now and then.

"We shouldn't have let her go", Willow finally broke the silence after they just had been walking side by side for almost ten minutes, steadily approaching the entrance to the underground laboratory, "we knew they'd still be after us, we should have stopped her…"

"She'll be okay", Buffy told her at once, "even if he… did do something to her, she can heal it, so you know she'll be okay…"

"Depends on what he did to her", Willow gave back, the look she gave her now pained and full of fear and worry for her partner, "there's only so much she can heal…"

"She'll be fine", Buffy stubbornly repeated in response, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "as you said, he needs something from you, he won't risk your willingness to help him by harming her…"

"Let's hope you're right", the witch sighed, then stopped walking, prompting Buffy to do the same, explaining the reason for her unexpected halt before the blonde could ask her.

"We're almost there", she let the Slayer know, "so I should do the spell now, or they'll notice you're with me…"

"We already did", a deep male voice told them before Buffy could reply, making them both flinch; and seconds later, the soldiers came out of their hiding places all around them, forcing the Slayer to bite back a curse as she had to realize that they probably had been following them from the moment on they had left Professor Collard's house.

"Don't move", one of them told the two, their helmets hiding their faces from view, all their guns aimed at them; glancing around, Buffy had a second to hope that someone was seeing what was happening, but had to realize that the streets were empty, having to admit to herself that this wasn't all too surprising.

"We have orders to take you to Doctor Collard", the soldier who obviously served as a spokesman for the group told them, distracting her from her thoughts, "will you come peacefully, or must we restrain you?"

"Just take us there", Willow snapped, not letting it show if she was afraid; in response, one of them lowered his gun, then moved to her side, making her glare at him when he grabbed her arm, something he didn't seem all too impressed though, one of his companions doing the same with Buffy seconds later.

"Move", their speaker ordered, and they all got walking; minutes later, they had reached the entrance and led the two women inside, the witch and the Slayer exchanging a worried look as they were marched down the hallway, asking themselves what might await them now – and in which state Pat would be in, unable to keep from wondering how far exactly Trevor would be willing to go to get what he wanted.

* * *

"Oh Goddess", Willow brought out the moment she was led into the laboratory where she had first faced Trevor, with a sudden, unexpected burst of strength breaking free of the grip the soldier still had on her and rushing to where her partner was kneeling on the ground, in front of a stern looking Trevor and one of his soldiers, said soldier having his gun aimed at the back of the demon's head, even though it was more than obvious that she wasn't in any state to try anything.

Dully, Willow wondered if they had chained her wrists behind her before or after they had beaten her up; due to the fact that Trevor didn't even have a scratch and the soldier next to him looked remarkably unhurt, as well, she figured that, even if she hadn't been handcuffed when they had beaten her, Pat hadn't had much chance to fight back, getting a closer look at the bruises and the cuts from which the blood which had dried on her cheeks and throat had spilled as she reached the taller woman and fell down on her knees in front of her.

"I'm so sorry", she brought out as she pulled the demon into an awkward hug, not sure how badly exactly she was hurt and not wanting to make it worse, "Sweetie, I'm so sorry…"

"Touching", Trevor commented, a brief gesture keeping his soldiers in place when they looked as if they wanted to move in and separate the two, "if I had known that taking her would make you so compliant, I would have done so much sooner."

"You'll pay for this", Willow gave back, still holding her lover in that slightly awkward embrace, feeling her slump against her, her head coming to a rest on her shoulder, "and this is not a warning, this is a promise. I'll make you pay for this."

"Your devotion is quite charming", Trevor dryly gave back, clearly not all too impressed by her threats, "but I don't think you're in the position to make any threats."

He nodded at the men standing behind Willow, and before she realized what was going on, they had grabbed her again and roughly manhandled her away from her partner; and just a second later, the soldier who had been standing next to Trevor took a step forward, brought up his gun in a swift move and made the witch cry out as he slammed the butt against the back of Pat's head, a strangled noise coming from the demon as she slumped forward, her good eye rolling back into her head, fresh blood trickling down her cheek moments later.

"Stop!" Willow snapped, struggling against the grip the men had on her, "stop hurting her!"

"She's out cold, so, sure", Trevor gave back, smirking coldly at her before his gaze moved to the soldier, his voice cold as well when he went on. "Take her away and lock her up. Doctor Rosenberg will be reunited with her lover as soon as she did what I want from her."

"No", the witch sharply spoke up, to Buffy's surprise managing to put enough authority in her voice to actually make the soldier who had started bending down towards the unconscious demon stop, "if you take her anywhere where I can't see her, I won't do a thing for you!"

"You're in no position to make demands", Trevor gave back, gesturing at the soldier though anyway and making him straighten up again, then crossing his arms over his chest, "if you don't do what I want from you, I'll kill all of you. And not just the three of you I got here, but everyone else who's important to you… Your family, your friends, and I'll make you watch."

He just had another second to look smug, then the smile was wiped off his face, replaced by an expression of shock as Willow let out a low growl in reply, the way her eyes flashed up brightly red startling him so much that he missed the alarmed look Buffy was giving her best friend; and seconds later, fire burst from her arms where the men were still holding her, both of them yelling in surprise and pain as they let go of her and almost jumped back.

"You will do no such thing", the redhead told Trevor, the young man finding himself unable to do anything but stand there and stare; the red was gone from her eyes now, but he knew that he had seen it, his mind racing as he tried to figure out what it meant.

"I think these negotiations are over", Willow added, turning to look at Buffy, the flames slowly dying, but still none of the soldiers dared approach her, "Buffy, take Pat and let's get out of here."

"Not so fast", Trevor finally got over his shock, now glaring again before he angrily gestured at his soldiers, "take them!"

In response, the soldiers exchanged a look, then started moving; and without even looking at them, Willow made an almost casual gesture at them while she said "Stop", and they all froze on the spot, along with Trevor, the Slayer being quite sure that his startled expression when he found himself unable to move was mirrored by the soldiers, their faces hidden by their helmets.

"How did you do that", Trevor pressed out between grit teeth, making Buffy wonder how thoroughly Willow's so casually cast spell had actually immobilized him, "you're not supposed to be able to do any magic in here unless I allow it!"

"Surprise", the redhead gave back dryly, then her gaze moved to Buffy again, and she raised an eyebrow, silently asking her best friend what she was waiting for; this startled the blonde out of her stupor, and she hurriedly moved to where Pat was groaning on the floor, the demon slowly coming back around after the hit she had taken, prompting Buffy to reassure her that everything would be okay while she moved her on her back, then picked her up on her arms.

"Let's go", Willow told her, making her nod almost automatically at the commanding tone in her voice; the witch gave Trevor another cold look, one which promised even more dangerous and potentially much more painful spells, should he try anything, then started walking, Buffy hurrying along behind her, still finding it hard to believe how eerily easy the witch had resolved their problems with the doctor and his super soldiers.


	15. Chapter 15

Once they were out of the laboratories again and back in the relative safety of Buffy's home, Willow's confidence and self-secure handling of the situation had puffed away into nothingness, to the concern of her best friend; the main reason for that was that her partner had demoned out and changed, and now that they both were out of danger, at least for a while, the topic of her pregnancy was in the air again, even though none of them had said anything out loud about it so far.

"Um", Buffy finally broke the rather awkward silence, "I'll… go make some coffee, I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything, alright? Don't run off alone again, none of you."

"No worries there", Pat grumbled, finding her cigarettes and lighting one of them up; normally, Buffy wouldn't have allowed her to smoke in the house, something she didn't like at all, and briefly, she worried what the second-hand smoke might do to whatever it was Willow had growing inside her, then told herself that surely, now wasn't the time to bring this up and just left, the uncomfortable silence taking over again the moment she was out of the room.

"I swear I didn't cheat on you", Willow was the one to break it after they had just sat there for a few minutes, avoiding looking at each other, her gaze now coming up to meet her partner's, "what happened with Mel back then wasn't my fault, Buffy was right when she reminded you of that, and you should know I'd never do something like that to you willingly…"

"Then how did it happen", the demon gave back after considering this for a few moments, to her relief not sounding as flat and uncaring as she had back in Collard's lab, but rather tired now, with Willow not sure if this could be blamed on what she had been through since she had left Collard's house or on the whole new situation with them, "if you didn't… well, you know… how did you end up pregnant?"

"I don't know", Willow had to admit, well aware of how lame this had to sound, fighting the urge to fidget on her seat nervously; all she wanted was to be taken into a loving embrace by her partner, but even though Pat didn't look as angered as she had at Collard's home, she didn't dare to move in for a hug, not knowing what she'd do if she'd try and end up rejected.

"It might be… something evil", she added, giving her partner an unhappy look, "like back then, with that parasite… magical, maybe, I don't know… there are spells which could do that, I'd have to perform a spell of my own to find out, but that might be dangerous, and I'm not even sure which spell to use, I…"

She realized that she was babbling and made herself shut up, taking in a deep breath; suddenly, feeling close to tears, she found herself unable to hold Pat's gaze any longer, her eyes focusing on the carpet between her feet as she breathed deeply once more, then spoke up again, her voice so soft that it was barely audible.

"I didn't cheat on you", she told the demon once more, unable to see the taller woman's facial expression since she kept staring at her feet, and thus missed how Pat's features softened visibly at her dejected tone, "and I don't know how this happened… I swear I'd tell you if I knew, but I don't, and I'm scared…"

She swallowed heavily, fighting bravely to hold back her tears; and then, Pat's arms suddenly were around her, pulling her close and holding her, giving her just what she needed so much, a shaky breath coming from her as she returned the embrace, almost clung to the demon, squeezing her eyes shut when she felt the taller woman rub her back soothingly.

"I'm sorry", she heard Pat rumble into her ear, "I got so worked up about this that not only did I put us all in danger, I didn't even think for a second about what it might be doing to you… Gosh, I feel like a giant ass now. I really messed up, I'm sorry…"

"Can't blame you", Willow gave back, once she could be sure she wouldn't burst into tears after all, "just… please believe me, I didn't…"

"I know", Pat interrupted her before she could reassure her once more that she hadn't cheated on her, "I know, it's alright, I believe you, and we'll figure this out… How this… happened, and if there's anything we can do…"

"But first, we have to get Trevor off our back", Willow sighed, bringing the topic back to their current opponent, since the danger of the demon leaving her had been dealt with, to her great relief, "I doubt he'll just give up now…"

"Surely not", the taller woman replied, rolling her eye, "he's too keen on having an army of invincible super soldiers. And I don't even want to imagine what he'll do, should he get them."

"He won't", Willow reassured her at once, "at least not from me. And I doubt there's another witch around powerful enough to do what he wants…"

"We should warn the others", Pat realized, giving her a worried look, even though she hadn't heard the rather explicit threat Trevor had made against the friends and family of the redhead, "tell them to be on the lookout. And ask Professor Collard to come here, and tell us as much as he can about everything. There must be a way to defeat those soldiers…"

"I'll look for a spell to slow them down", Willow promised in response, snuggling closer to her now, "then Buffy and you should be able to take them on, right?"

"In hand to hand, yes", Pat agreed, "but they got guns, even though they don't seem too keen on using them."

"I can take those guns away from them with magic", the redhead smiled, still immensely relieved that the demon now was believing her about the fact that she hadn't cheated on her, "I did it before, when we were in that abandoned asylum with those cannibal creeps… I'm just not sure I can do it on all of the at once, but a few of them…"

"Two, to be exact", the demon smirked, prompting her to give her a questioning look, "one gun for me, and one for Buffy. To even the odds a bit."

"I don't like guns", Buffy's voice chimed in before Willow could reply something, returning into the living room with a can of freshly brewed coffee, cups for the three of them, and milk and sugar, "so maybe just one will be enough."

"Even if you don't like guns, they do", Pat argued back, "so you should make an exception just this once. You know how to use one, right?"

"Of course", Buffy huffed, "but I don't like the thought of having a shoot-out with these guys. Even if that happens in the lab, there's still the danger of ricocheting bullets, and one of those soldiers told Trevor that their aim is perfect… unlike ours."

"Actually, mine is pretty good", the demon pointed out, making Willow smile slightly, "but I suppose we can worry about that once we really do get into a gunfight with them. First, we need to figure out how to slow them down, and learn as much as we can about them."

"I'll call Collard", Buffy told her in response, "and invite him over. And since the two of you are snuggling again, I assume you're good?"

"Yes", Willow confirmed, briefly smiling at her partner, "we'll still need to figure out how that happened, but we're good."

"Just for the record", Buffy smirked, already halfway out the room and on the way to the phone, "personally, I think it's Pat's."

And then, she was out the room, leaving the two women to stare after her, then at each other, both of them stunned into speechlessness as they tried to cope with what Buffy just had said and figure out how exactly the blonde had jumped to that rather peculiar conclusion.


	16. Chapter 16

"Buffy!" Willow scolded the moment the Slayer had hung up the phone, making the blonde turn and look at her, "you can't just drop something like that on us and then walk off! What do you mean, you think it's Pat's? You know that's not… how things work!"

"Of course", Buffy replied, rolling her eyes, smirking moments later at how fast the demon was gulping down her coffee behind Willow, as if this was helping her calm down, "I'm not dull! But, come on, you do remember channelling your girlfriend in a rather peculiar way? Smoke rising from your hands when you got pissed back at Collard's lab, and the flashing red eyes, and the growling? Not to mention the flames when those goons had grabbed you?"

"You did that again?" Pat wanted to know, frowning, "and I was out cold again and didn't see it? Aw man…"

"I did it once before, in the asylum", Willow explained in response to Buffy's questioning look, "but I thought I was just… you know, doing magic."

"Right", Buffy replied, rolling her eyes again, "suddenly, after years of dating a fire demon, and never doing her neat little fire tricks before, it happens out of nowhere all at once, and you think it's your subconscious doing magic? If what Collard said is right and you're in your sixth or seventh week, you already would have been pregnant back then, and if it is hers…"

"But how can it be mine", Pat threw in before Willow had the chance to reply anything to that, "as Willow pointed out, even if we do have quite the healthy sexy life, there's no way in Hell anything we do could result in her getting pregnant. It just isn't possible."

"You're a centuries old demon, capable of changing into a much furrier form with much sharper teeth and claws, tossing fire around at will", Buffy started listing her abilities in reply, making her raise an eyebrow, "and your girlfriend is one of the most powerful witches on this world, maybe even _the_ most powerful one, and the thought of you getting her pregnant seems impossible? You're kidding, right?"

"Buffy", Willow tried reason yet again in reply, even though she had to admit she kind of liked the thought, very much preferring the idea of having Pat's child within her than something evil put there by an unknown new foe, "that's all true, we both know that, but… It'd need a conscious effort of magic to make something like this happen, and even then, I'm not sure it's possible, it wouldn't just… happen."

"That's what you think", Buffy argued back, smiling slightly, clearly warming up to the idea as well, "and hey, you have to admit, that'd be better than having some evil hellspawn thing inside you, right?"

"Definitely", Willow agreed at once, smiling at the taller woman, relieved when the smile was returned – they never had discussed the possibility of having kids, since they both had been aware of the fact that the very nature of their relationship made this rather hard, not to mention the rather dangerous lives they were living, but now that it had happened, she'd much rather give birth to her partner's child than to something which had been created with malevolent intent.

"Well, we'll have to figure this out as soon as we dealt with Trevor", Buffy now decided to change the topic again, "his father should be here any minute, with all the information we need on them."

"Good", Willow gave back, checking her watch, "and after he told us everything, I'll try if I can find a spell to slow them down, maybe the one I used on that evil male version of you will help with that, Pat…"

"Hopefully", the demon grumbled in response, "cause it's really annoying how they just keep blurring out of sight whenever I try to land a hit. Not to mention it's bad for my ego."

"Poor you", Buffy giggled, turning to look at her, "but I understand how you feel, I—"

They didn't even hear the gunshot, and only later, Willow had the chance to realize that they had been using silenced guns, making sure that no one in the neighbourhood would notice what was going on and come to investigate, or maybe call the police; only when the window shattered and Buffy was thrown back against the wall, blood gushing from the bullet hole in her shoulder, they were realized that they were under attack, Pat snapping a sharp "Get down!" as she tackled the witch and forced her to do just that, more bullets hitting the wall where she had been standing seconds ago moments later.

"Crap, crap, crap", the demon cursed as she kept her head down, not daring to look up, hearing Buffy groan behind her, "Buffy! How bad is it?"

"Not sure", they heard the Slayer pant in reply from where she laid on the floor, clutching at her shoulder; still keeping Willow covered with her body, Pat took a moment to glance at the blonde, then focused on her partner again, telling her in a low voice to stay down, her heart racing in her chest as she tried to figure out how to handle this.

"We need weapons", she then mumbled, longingly glancing towards the living room, where Buffy kept one of her weapon chests, "they won't just keep on firing, they'll try to—"

Just like the gunshot had interrupted Buffy, the sound of the front door being broken down now interrupted her, making her growl angrily while she came to her feet again, Willow hurriedly doing the same as she tried to remember the spell she had used to slow down a magically enhanced demon; keeping her voice down so they wouldn't hear what she was saying, she started mumbling the words as fast as they came to her mind while four of the soldiers came rushing into the house, followed by Trevor, a smug look appearing on his face yet again when he saw that Buffy had been hit.

"One down", he then commented, his soldiers blocking the only way out and aiming their guns at the witch and the demon, "but this can end peacefully without any more bloodshed if you just agree to help me now, Doctor Rosenberg."

In response, Willow just glared at him, still mumbling the spell under her breath, then gesturing at the soldiers as she said the last few words; they all briefly flinched, then exchanged looks, making her wonder if they had felt something and if the spell had worked, something they'd only know once the fighting would start.

"I'll never help you", she took the time to tell Trevor, now that the spell had been finished, "we'll do everything we can to stop you!"

"Not much you can do, though", Trevor shrugged, not all too perturbed by her anger, "I doubt your friend is in a state to fight, what with that bullet hole in her shoulder, and we'll see how much good your demon will be against my men. Guys? Take the demon down, make sure you don't harm the witch, we still need her."

In response, the four men slung their guns over their shoulders, then started moving, one of them taking the lead while the other three stayed behind him, giving Willow a second to wonder if they'd actually attack her one by one – before Pat let out a low growl in front of her and moved to meet them, fire bursting from her fists as she brought them up.

"Make it quick", Trevor told his men, sounding bored; in response, the soldier up ahead sped up slightly, even though he was nowhere near as fast as they had been during the other fights, his punch much slower as well, giving the black haired woman ample time to duck.

Smirking as the spell obviously had worked, Pat used the opening his failed attack had created to move even closer and land a punch of her own; and the moment her fist connected with his stomach, blinding pain shot through her head, a cry which was a mixture of pain and shock escaping her as she cringed, hearing Willow call out her name in alarm behind her.

Gritting her teeth in an attempt to ignore the pain, the demon brought her fists up again, somehow managing to block the punch the soldier threw at her; and when she hit the back, the pain exploded in her head again, another cry coming from her as she stumbled back, then slumped down to her knees, clutching at her head with both hands, groaning to herself.

"Looks like your girl is out of the fight, as well", Trevor commented, smirking smugly again, "so why don't you make this easy on yourself and on them, and do what I want? You can do it right now, and we'll leave, and never bother you again."

"No", Willow snapped in response, torn between anger at his behaviour and worry for her girlfriend, who by now was struggling back to her feet, now much more hesitant about attacking the men; as an answer, Trevor sighed theatrically, then nodded at his men, sounding cold and uncaring when he gave them his next command. "Fine, then, she wants it the hard way. Knock them all out and take them back to the lab, I think our witch here needs a bit more time in the tank to convince her."

The mere thought of going back in there made Willow's heart race as fear welled up within her; noticing her reaction , Trevor smiled at her, then gave his soldiers an impatient look, and they started moving again, the witch taking a step back from them as she tried to fight down her terror and figure out how to get them all out of this, realizing that, with Buffy down and Pat unable to harm the men, it was up to her to stop them.


	17. Chapter 17

The moment one of them reached out to grab her, Willow brought up her hand and snapped a single word, startled sounds coming from the soldiers when, in response, the wooden floor of the kitchen suddenly developed a life of its own, thin lengths of wood sneaking upwards and wrapping around their ankles, then their calves, one of them even flailing his arms as he momentarily was in danger of losing his balance.

"Damn you and your magic tricks", Trevor snarled, reaching beneath his jacket and bringing out a gun of his own, aiming at the black haired woman, "free them and come along or your girlfriend gets it!"

In response, her gaze moved to him, now that the soldiers had been made immobile, and her eyes narrowed – and then, the gun flew out of his grip, making him cry out in pain as it nearly tore off his finger, and landed in her waiting hand, making it her turn to smile while she aimed it at him, hiding the fact that she wasn't sure if she'd actually be able to shoot him remarkably well.

"Please don't!" Professor Collard's voice came up before she could ponder this further, and come to a decision, "don't shoot him, he's my son!"

"Some son you got there", Pat acidly gave back, while Trevor let out a snort of contempt; to the surprise of both the witch and the demon, his father glared at him in response, then his gaze moved to the soldiers, his voice surprisingly stern and hard when he addressed them.

"Leave now", he ordered, ignoring the fact that the binding spell was still keeping them in place, "return to the base, at once."

"Yes, Sir", they all replied in perfect unison; Collard briefly glanced at Willow after their agreement, and even though she wasn't sure it was a good idea, she gestured at them with her free hand, keeping the gun aimed at Trevor as she undid the spell and allowed them to leave, something they immediately did, to her great relief.

"You seem to have forgotten that you are not the only one who can command these soldiers", Collard told his son, giving him a strict look, "and this has been going on long enough. I let this happen long enough. You will not work any further on this project, and I will make sure that it is shut down."

"I'm not the only one who forgot something here", Trevor hissed in response, the rest watching this exchange in surprise, never having expected the rather meek Collard to stand up to his offspring like that, "or did you already forget the promise I made to you? Interfere with this, try to stop me, and Samantha gets it. I know where—"

With anger flaring up in his eyes, Collard took a fast step closer to him and slapped him, making Willow gasp while Pat smirked slightly; clearly, Trevor hadn't expected this kind of behaviour from his father, either, since he just stood and stared, even having forgotten that Willow still was aiming the gun at him.

"How dare you", he whispered, "how dare you raise your hand against me…!"

"No, how dare _you_ ", Collard corrected in reply, matching the young man's glare with one of his own, "threatening the family like that, all for your little project? This is not how your mother and I raised you!"

"She's not part of my family", Trevor spat, crossing his arms over his chest, now looking like a petulant teenager, "and you'll regret doing this. You know I have the support of people very high up in the ranks!"

"They never would have supported this", Collard gave back, all at once sounding tired, "attacking these innocent people, these civilians, torturing the girl… And you know that. By now, they, too know what you did, and they're on their way to pick you up and to stop you."

"No!" Trevor cried out in reply, then suddenly shot forward, grabbing his startled father – and tossing him into the room, right into Willow's arms, the witch dropping the gun as she was forced to catch the elder man, both of them going down as his weight was too much for her to hold upright.

Not even bothering to look back, Trevor ran, bursting out the door and vanishing from sight, ignoring it when his father cried out his name; struggling his feet again, Collard ran to the door in an attempt to follow him, stopping though when he saw that his son was gone, his shoulders slumping as he shook his head.

Then, he seemed to remember that a young woman had been shot not all too long ago, and turned back to check on her; to his relief, Buffy didn't look as if she was close to fainting any moment, still clutching her shoulder, but meeting his gaze boldly, her voice surprisingly calm and steady when she spoke up, her words making both Willow and Pat nod their agreement.

"Alright, professor", she told the elder man, struggling to her feet, to his amazement without any help, "you really got some explaining to do now."

* * *

"Things were never meant to go that far", Collard sighed out ten minutes later, after Buffy had reassured him that she wouldn't bleed to death or pass out from the pain within the next half hour and that what he had to say was more important than getting a mere fleshwound treated, "I already had a bad feeling at the beginning, when he said he wanted to target you, Doctor Rosenberg, but I never thought he'd go that far…"

"You should have known the moment he forced you to set us up by threatening your daughter", Pat grumbled, "come on, that didn't make it obvious?"

"I apologize for all he put you through", Collard sighed in response, not really answering her question, "if I had known how much it would change him, I never would have let him work on that project. But having those soldiers, these… killing machines, at his hands, obeying his commands, it… got into his head…"

"It made him feel powerful", Willow mumbled, exchanging an uneasy look with her lover, "he probably felt he could send them against anyone who opposed him."

"Yes", Collard nodded, "I fear that this is exactly what had happened. So when his tries to make then invulnerable, as the founders of the project demanded, didn't work out, he started to look for ways which had nothing to do with science… And then he heard of the trip to the asylum, and of what you did there."

"So he decided to force her into making them invincible", Pat grumbled, the distinctive growl in her voice making the professor flinch, "and when she wouldn't comply, he threatened your daughter, put her in this dreadful tank, and had me kidnapped by his soldier goons. Great."

"I should have acted much sooner", Collard sighed in response, "but I was blind, and didn't see how dangerous he was becoming… I'm truly sorry. I would have stopped him sooner if I had known what he would do… But now, you're in no more danger. As we speak, government agents are clearing out the laboratories, and once he goes back there, they will arrest him on the spot."

"That's something", the demon acidly gave back, making him swallow heavily while he gave her another nervous look, seemingly fearing that she might attack him any second; before he could voice those concerns though, Willow did so with some worries of her own, giving her lover another concerned look as she spoke up.

"So he'll be gone, and he'll leave us alone?" she wanted to know, her worried tone prompting Pat to grasp her hand and give it a reassuring squeeze, "are you sure about this? Because, trust me, we really have other things to worry about now…"

"I imagine", Collard gave back with a brief look at her stomach; for a moment, Willow looked as if she wanted to reply something to that, slightly annoyed by his behaviour, but his phone ringing in her pocket cut her off, a frown appearing on the professor's face while he pulled the device out, a look of relief replacing said frown moments later.

"It's the agent I've been in contact with", he told the small group, "I guess they got my son…"

Taking in a deep breath, he pushed the button which took the call, listening in silence after he had greeted the caller, only letting out vaguely agreeing noises every now and then, just speaking up after the caller had been talking for a few minutes already. "Yes, I am still with them… Why? Yes? Okay, I'll tell them… Thank you… Keep me updated, will you?"

He listened again, then let out another vaguely agreeing noise before he said goodbye and ended the call, frowning as he looked at the three women, a hint of confusion in his voice when he finally spoke up again, his gaze focusing on Pat as he did so.

"They got him", he told the demon, making Willow and Buffy wonder why he basically ignored them now, "he came with them willingly enough, but… he told the agent to ask you if you've got a headache. And he said that the Initiative left a lot of interesting things behind and that the situation would get very exciting soon."

"Headache", Buffy repeated, frowning as well as she tried to remember anything else than the shock and pain of being shot from the brief fight in her house, "wait… when you punched those guys, that hurt you, right?"

"Yes", Pat confirmed, only to flinch when Willow let out a gasp next to her eyes wide and full of shock as they met the demon's, an audible tremble in her voice as she said out loud what Buffy had been fearing from the moment on Collard had given them his son's message. "The Initiative, and his comment about you having a headache… oh Goddess…"

"What are you all talking about?" Collard wanted to, his confusion only growing when now, the black haired woman seemed to come to some sort of realization as well, her good eye briefly going wide, "I have no idea what Trevor meant, but it seems you do?"

"Yes", Pat was the one to answer him, feeling how Willow squeezed her hand, but keeping her gaze focused on the professor, "the Initiative had developed chips to stop vampires and demons from hurting humans. And it seems your lovely son put one of them inside my head."


	18. Chapter 18

Final update for this story, everyone! I hope you enjoyed it :) Next one will start, as usual, on Monday.

* * *

"Are we sure that this is what happened?" Collard wanted to know after needing a minute to digest those news, giving the demon a helpless look, clearly upset by his son causing even further havoc even after he had been stopped, "is there a way to test it…?"

"I could hit you", Pat gave back amiably, making him flinch back – before Willow gave her a scolding look and shook her head, then told her to hit her instead, not surprised when immediately, the taller woman's eyebrows shot up in reply.

"Not hard", she quickly clarified, "just a punch on the arm or something, that used to be enough to set Spike's off…"

"…fine", the black haired woman grumbled after a moment, the idea of hitting Collard appealing much more to her, "let's go then…"

She braced herself for the pain, then clenched her fist and, just as Willow had suggested, punched her in the arm; and a second later, blinding pain shot through her head again, a shout coming from her as she grasped it with both hands, gritting her teeth, a low groan following her initial cry of pain.

"Alright", she then grumbled, while Willow placed one hand on her back, giving her a concerned look, "definitely working the way it's supposed to. Dammit, if I get my hands on that little bastard…!"

"I'll speak to my… acquaintances at the government about this", Collard let her know, looking worried, "perhaps they can help, and remove it…"

"No", the redhead told him sharply, making him look at her in surprise, "you know what the Initiative did to demons, right? Who knows what other ideas they might get if they learn that now, there's a demon with a working chip, and thus can't fight back."

"But…", the professor started, only to have Pat shake her head as well, the gesture earning her a startled look, as well, a heavy sigh escaping her before she replied, her words making him frown slightly, even though he had to admit that she was probably right.

"Willow's right", she let him know, exchanging an unhappy look with her partner, "I have no reason to trust them enough to let them in on this. As Willow said, they aren't too friendly about demons, not even demons who've helped stopping a few apocalypses, and I'm not going to take that risk with them."

"Well, I do understand that", Collard had to admit, "but then, what will you do about it? Just live with it?"

"If it works like Spike's did, fighting other demons and vampires won't be a problem", the demon pointed out in reply, "and normally, we don't fight humans anyway. Your son's super soldiers were quite the exception."

"I suppose that's a good thing?" Collard gave back, sounding rather insecure; immediately, both Pat and Willow nodded, then the witch smiled at her partner, reaching out and grasping her hand, the tender touch making the taller woman smile slightly as well.

"And maybe, we can do something about it with magic", the redhead suggested, earning nods from both Pat and Buffy this time, "we didn't really try with Spike because he was, well, Spike, but in your case…"

"I'm sure we'll figure something out", Buffy finished for her, then briefly grimaced as the bullet wound still hadn't been treated, even though it had stopped bleeding by now, thanks to her Slayer healing, "as Willow said, we didn't try too hard with Spike, but for you…"

"First, we'll find out whose child Willow's carrying", the demon decided in response, looking and sounding as if she wouldn't accept any discussion about this, "just in case it's not… mine, a thought which still seems strange to me by the way, and we have to… do something about it. Then we can worry about chips."

"Good plan", Willow nodded her agreement, glancing down on her stomach, feeling a bit uneasy about the whole situation again, "and Buffy, you should have that wound taken care of…"

"I'll do that", Buffy reassured her, "but, no offense, I don't really need the two of you around for that, so you go home and find out that what I said about this baby's daddy… or second mommy… is true."

"I can assist with taking care of your injury", Collard offered, making her nod; and since this had been taken care of, and the Slayer had made it quite clear that she wanted Willow and Pat to focus on the pregnancy, the couple left her house after she had told them once more that she'd be alright and that she could handle it, heading for their own home, the witch now feeling nervous again as she realized that soon, the truth about her unexpected pregnancy might be revealed.

* * *

"I thought I'd start with a basic prayer", Willow told her partner an hour later, sitting on the living room, the taller woman watching her from her favourite armchair, one leg propped up on the armrest as she more laid than sat in it, "try to connect to Hecate and ask her if she can help us with this, she has been quite helpful in the past, even bringing me back from the dead and everything."

"Yup", Pat agreed, fighting down the urge to light up a cigarette, telling herself that it might mess with the spell; Willow gave her another smile, then took in another deep breath, focusing on the candles and crystals she had readied, gingerly picking the bowl which contained the transparent gems up with both hands as she closed her eyes.

"Goddess, hear my prayer", she mumbled to herself while Pat gave her best to not even breathe too loudly, knowing that this was delicate work, even for someone as skilled as Willow, not moving a muscle as she listened to the redhead's mumbled prayer.

As she was speaking, the crystals began to glow, their light soon bright enough to make the flames of the candles almost invisible; and seconds after Willow had said the last word, the crystals started glowing so brightly that both Pat and she had to look away, a strong breeze coming up out of nowhere and blowing out the candles, the only illumination in the room now coming from the brightly glowing crystals, both of them glad though when the glow died down a bit, allowing them to look again.

And seconds later, they both nearly flinched back as Hecate had materialized right next to the now cold candles, spreading her arms with quite the flourish, a warm smile on her face as she spoke up, her voice as friendly and kind as it always had been so far when she had addressed them.

"You called me, and I came", she told the couple, giving them a warm smile, "how may I help you? I'm glad to see you didn't get lost in another world this time."

"Thank you for answering my call", Willow formally replied, even though she figured that by now, the Goddess and she were on quite friendly terms, "and I promise we won't occupy too much of your time, we just have a simple question…"

"Ask, child", Hecate gave back, to the relief of Pat lowering herself to the floor instead of keeping up the levitation a few inches above the carpet, looking quite relaxed as she stood there and waited for Willow to ask her question, the redhead doing so after clearing her throat and figuring out how to word this best.

"I just recently had an… examination", she then started, "and during that, we discovered that… I'm pregnant. And since, well, I haven't been with a guy that way for quite some time now, years in fact, we are kind of worried that it might be something… evil."

"It's not", Hecate reassured her at once, to her great relief, prompting her to exchange a happy look with her partner, "but your worries are understandable, of course, seeing your lack of… activity in that certain field. I can reassure you though that the child within you is not of evil origin."

"Then where did it come from?" Pat now couldn't keep her quiet any longer, even though technically, Willow had been the one to summon the Goddess and thus, should be the only one addressing her, "don't tell me Buffy's right."

"I wouldn't know", Hecate gave back, smiling slightly at her, clearly not minding the fact that she wasn't observing proper protocol, "contrary to popular belief, I don't listen in on all the conversations of my worshippers. But if she told you that it's yours, she's kind of right."

"…okay", Pat mumbled, exchanging another glance with the witch, now looking as if someone had punched her in the gut, her slightly queasy expression prompting the redhead to look at her in concern, worried that the demon might faint any second, "well, then… Can you explain how this happened…?"

"It is partly my fault, I'm afraid", Hecate gave back, to the surprise of both women now looking slightly ashamed, "you see, when Willow died and I used the power of your immortality to bring her back, the… lifeforce of said immortality, for lack of a better word, was too much to be used up by bringing her back… So it had to go somewhere. The child Willow now carries within her was… created by the essence of the two of you, so it is, in every sense of the word, yours as much as hers."

"Um", Pat gave back, at a loss for words, "that's… wow… Honestly, until right now, part of me was still sure that this can't be true, but now that you confirmed it…"

"Your doubts are perfectly understandable", Hecate reassured her, making Willow nod immediately, "it took me a while to figure it out as well. I think this is the first time ever that something like this happened."

"So you knew before Willow asked for you?" the demon demanded to know, raising an eyebrow, "why didn't you tell us before she called you?"

"It's not right to interfere with these things without being asked", Hecate pointed out, "so I had to wait until I was asked. Even I have to hold up certain rules."

"Okay", the black haired woman muttered, still looking shocked; the Goddess gave her another smile, then told the couple that now, they surely had a lot to talk about, adding that they could call on her anytime for advice or help before she vanished into nothingness, the two women staring at each other after she had left, silence filling the room for a minute before Willow spoke up again, saying out loud what they both were thinking. "So… We're gonna be mommies. I think we'll have a lot to prepare for now…"

"Hell yeah", Pat gave back, to the redhead's relief not looking as shell-shocked anymore though as she had two minutes ago, "wow. To be honest, I never saw myself as the motherly type. This will be… interesting."

"You can say that again", Willow told her, getting up from her seat on the floor and moving over to her, smiling when immediately, she was pulled into an embrace, "but you're in this with me, right?"

"Of course", the demon reassured her at once, momentarily shocked that the witch even might doubt this, then remembering her first reaction about the pregnancy and feeling rather bad about it again, "I'll do anything I can to support you through this. You're my girl, and I love you."

"I love you, too", the redhead gave back happily, making the black haired woman smile at her before they exchanged a tender kiss; and even though she wasn't sure what to think of this development, Willow felt happy and confident as they pulled apart again, sure that, no matter what might happen, her partner and she would be able to handle all of it together, strengthened by their love and with the support of their friends.

End.


End file.
